Dan Gossen about Ward vs. Bute

Like I said, I can't speak for Ward's motivations, but if I were Ward, I would have insisted on the same thing that Ward is insisting on now. My explanation would be different than Ward's, though.

To me, Bute is a perfectly legitimate challenger - the best out there. I think he's a very worthy #2 SMW. If Ward is saying otherwise, he's wrong. There's no better opponent for Ward in the division than Bute.

But that's exactly why I would insist that Bute not fight me now if I were Ward.

As I've explained here before, it's not too uncommon for the #1 guy and the #2 guy to fight each other. If Ward and Bute fight each other next, that's exactly what we'll see. The universally acknowledged #1 guy fighting the universally acknowledged #2 guy.

That's good, but that's not special.

Ward would be the heavy favourite in that fight, and would get some credit for beating a Top 30 P4P, with a healthy dose of hating because Bute would be seen as hype.

Special would be Bute destroying the very person who made Ward a Top 5 P4P fighter to become a Top 5 or 10 P4P fighter himself, and throwing into chaos what we thought we knew about who the #1 is.

Suddenly, Ward would not be the universally acknowledged #1 at SMW anymore. The lines would begin to blur, and opinions would start to divide sharply,
Suddenly, Ward would have in his backyard a Top 10 P4P fighter who showed him up by outdoing his best win.
Suddenly, Ward is not the big betting favourite anymore. He's maybe a slight favourite.

Suddenly we no longer have the regular #1 vs. #2. We now have #1 vs. #1.

We now have a superfight.

And the winner will have a P4P scalp to their name, and a likely shot at the #1 or #2 P4P slot. And all Bute has to do is decisively beat up Carl Froch to raise the stakes by that much.

If I were Ward, I would INSIST on it.

 

In many interviews, Ward said that he want to fight Kessler. As Kessler fights in Spring, the possibilities with Ward are only in the late summer and in Fall., the window with a Buté's fight is very small for Fall 2012. The only open clear window for Buté-Ward is next spring and summer 2012. After, it will be pure speculation.

Ward could have the real possibility to get all the belts and titles in 2012, but prefer take another road.:think

 

:deal

At the end of the day, Ward needs Bute more than Bute needs him. Bute is perfectly fine fighting in Canada in front of 10-20k fans. Ward can fight in Atlantic City again in front of 2,000 fans for all I care. I much rather watch Bute anyway.

 

I understand your point of view, and I can agree that if Buté fights Froch, wins it, it can only add to the hype of a superfight, but as I said before, a lot of complications can interfere with this ideal.

one, imagine that Goosen says: one is not enough. Buté earns it only if he fights Froch and Kessler. this opens for Ward-Buté only for maybe late Summer Fall 2013, maybe winter 2014.

Major injury for one the two, it can adds many months of delay,

Ward could say in the beginning of 2013: OK, i have an arrangement with Hopkins or Dawson, then, I decide to move to another division.

My point is: between a great fight in the next months or an eventual superfight in the next years, I will take the one that is more sure to happen .

 

Oh ye of little faith! Sure, anything can happen, but I like my sport to play out like movies, where you beat up all the henchmen first, all the while thinking to yourself, "dang! He's invincible!". Then you see another guy beat up all the good guy henchmen, and the main character's best friend, and you think. "Whoa! Who is THAT???"

And finally, in the last act of the movie, the two fight! Isn't that the way we want it? Isn't that the way its supposed to be? Rocky doesn't fight Apollo and THEN Spider Rico, he fights Spider Rico and THEN Apollo.

Froch is Spider Rico, lol. I'll watch Bute vs. Froch, and then Bute vs. Ward. If Bute beats Ward first, I ain't interested in watching Bute fight Froch anymore. I already know what's gonna happen.

 

And that would be fantastic IF that were Ward's plans. Or should I say G@@53N's plans for his newest cashcow.

Bute will beat Froch in April and Ward will beat Anthony Dirrel in May or June. When Bute is finished with Froch, he will AGAIN immediately say he has passed the test and now wants Ward. Ward, meaning his team, will say they are preparing for their MANDATORY and will negotiate after and if they are successful, just like they did after Bute beat Johnson.

Then after Ward beats Dirrel, Bute will have have nearly 2 months of inactivity and will be looking for a fall opponent. He will AGAIN call out Ward but Ward will need time to decide if he is moving to LHW to fight BHOP or staying at SMW for Bute. In the meantime, Bute will have to defend or sign to unify vs Steilitz/Kessler. Ward will then find another opponent such as Groves or perhaps Pavlik(if he's right by then) and fight him instead of Bute.

Again, Bute goes on to unify in August vs Steiglitz/Kessler and then calls on Ward, who will be preparing for Groves, DeGale, or Pavlik. He will not negotiate. Then Bute will be forced to fight his mandatory, like Andre Dirrel before the new year. He'll sign the fight with Dre, then when Ward wins vs TBA, he'll say he's accomplished everything he could at the wieght and fight 67 y/o Bernard Hopkins in December 2012, ONCE AGAIN slithering his luciferian ass out of the path of the Bute.

As for

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on him. He's had Arreola call out videos removed from youtube from countless contenders, he denied interbox to copromote so Bute could enter the s6 as a substitute, but happily agreed to 42 yo Glen Johnson, the man is a snake, it's no wonder why such a serpent manages the antichrist andre ward so well.

 

Looks like Ward will take care of The Dog Dirrell (WBC mando) spring 2012.

Bute must take care of the winner of title eliminator Andrade vs George within 9 months (scheduled for winter/spring 2012).

Ward will have to take care of some WBA sanctioned opponent, whether that be Magee, Balzsay, some contender, whatever.

Ward-Kessler II seems like a given to me, considering the interest from Sauerland and Ward himself mentioning he would 'love' such a rematch.


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If Ward-Bute doesn't happen this spring, mandos & Kessler will add to each of Bute & Ward's schedule.

There's a fair chance it doesn't happen at 168. What a shame that would be.

 

Good take.......wish that was G@@53N would have said when he refused to do business with interbox in 2010. That acutally makes sense, what you said. But this whole Bute aint worthy crap looks like a duck, and the whole refusing to copromote and thus disallowing Bute's entry into s6 walks and talks like a duck. Hell, how did ward know that Bute wouldn't have gotten KTFO by Froch, and why would G@@53N refuse to copromote with interbox..........UNLESS YOU ARE RIGHT!

Suddenly I don't feel so much hatred for Ward, but I still hate G@@53N for pulling Roriguez calling out Arreola down from the web.

 

I like demigawd theory and I hope he's right.

As for Bute fighting George, I'm almost sure that the IBF would allow him to parlay that fight in order to unify with Kessler, Steiglitz or Ward so long as a George/Andrade3 fight is guaranteed as the IBF mandatory for the winner of either unification bout. Plus, Bute and Ward are both in a financial position to pay either Andrade, George or even either D2 step aside $$$ to make their mega fight.

It's really a matter of $$$$ and legacy IMO. If Ward wants to be the best SMW he needs Bute moreso than he needs BHOP or Kessler2.

As for Kessler vs Ward2, NO EFFING CHANCE. Bute will literally throw so much $$$$ at Kessler that any move towards a rematch with Ward will look like NOTHING other than a complete duck.