Andre Ward has been away from the squared circle for over a year, and at age 30 he may have given one of his prime years away in the courtroom. This can be dispiriting to a high caliber fighter such as Ward, but he prefers to see this situation in a more positive light.
Ward told Tha Boxing Voice, “I look at it as if I got a good long rest, and if you look at Floyd he had a two year hiatus. I think he had two stretches where he was off a year and Floyd was much older than me, I don’t know if Floyd could have competed the way he did at that elite level if he didn’t take that time off. So I rested my body and mind and it was involuntary, trust me I didn’t want to be off, but I don’t think it’s going to bother me.”
Now that Ward has signed with Roc Nation Sports, which appears to be a great move for both parties, he hopes to reignite his career by cleaning out the 168 pound division. He may take a tune-up fight to dispose of any ring rust, but aims to compete against the very best of what the division has to offer.
Ward explained, “I just need to get in a groove and wipe the dust off. I think the champion should fight the other champions and the top contenders. We can’t use the cliché that we want to give the fans what they want to see if we don’t fight the best. At the end of the day they should want what I have. Can you imagine me fighting in the 80’s and 90’s, all those guys fought each other, like man you got me tonight but I’m coming to get you back, that is boxing.”
Regarding the ongoing trend of mismatches in today’s world of boxing Ward commented, “I’ve never seen anything like this in 20 years that I followed the sport, its mind blowing.”
This current trend in the boxing world have caused people to suggest Ward to move up to the 175 pound division, if the competition doesn’t present itself. Ward elaborated on the issue by stating, “I’m not going to 175, I have to build my body up then go to 175 as a full fledged light heavyweight. I’m not going to leave my post just because these guys don’t want to fight.”
