It wasn’t that long ago that Andre Ward was fighting at super middleweight.
And while he retained his WBA, IBF, and WBO light heavyweight titles in his rematch with Sergey Kovalev on Saturday night, the American fighter does not seem content to remain at the weight class where many had previously felt that he’d be outsized by plenty of potential opponents.
But Ward, who stands at 6 foot even, is of the belief that size doesn’t matter and has revealed a desire to move up to heavyweight.
And ‘S.O.G’ is not targeting the world’s smaller heavyweights by any means. He is, in fact, open to the idea of meeting one of the division’s most imposing figures.
Following last weekend’s victory, which was mired in controversy due to the nature of the stoppage, Ward discussed his very lofty ambitions on Sky Sports.
“I always seem to be knocking down giants one by one,” Ward said. “Heavyweight, that’s always been a dream of mine. It’s got to be against the right guy, but I dream big and anything is possible.”
Ward added: “He [Ward’s trainer Virgil Hunter] has always been setting the bar high, that is the essence of our team right there.
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“That man will have me believing things that I never even thought of. Like, ‘Anthony Joshua, really?’ and it will make perfect sense to him. So we’ll see.”
Technique trumps any size advantage, according to both Ward and Hunter, and the latter made no secret of his hope to see Ward follow in Roy Jones Jr’s footsteps in moving from light heavyweight champion to heavyweight kingpin.
“Fighting a bigger man doesn’t have to do with size, it has to do with your attributes and their attributes,” Hunter said.
“If you are able to single out one thing that makes it a competitive fight for yourself, you take that chance.
“I’d like to see him fight Anthony Joshua. I’m not playing, I’m serious. I think it would be a very interesting fight. I believe he could outbox Anthony Joshua.
“There’s some things about Joshua that I see. He’s a good kid, I know him, but I see things with him in particular and he is the best [of the heavyweight champions], but styles make fights.
“It would be a waste of time to go to the cruiserweights, we should just leapfrog it, go for it all.”
