GGG avoided Ward, exposed!

36 year old fights at 160 for his entire 12 year career and makes weight comfortably, and is really a natural 168. Seems legit.

 

Here's the truth of the matter @Mark Adam:

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I have done so much research on the GGG-Ward negotiations, and I find that much misinformation exists. The plain facts are:

Ward-GGG in 2013: was discussed, GGG agreed at the HBO offices, Ward got sidelined by his court battles with Goossen. GGG was desperate for a big fight then, he was completely frozen out at MW.

Ward-GGG in 2015: GGG turned down 50%-50% at 168 lb, (informally, i.e. via media) counter-offered 50%-50% at 164. K2 informally claim they also counter-offered Ward 40%-60% at 168 lb, but this was not officially confirmed. Negotiations broke down over the money, GGG felt he was compromising his shot at Canelo.

And yes, Ward would've probably UD'ed Golovkin either time but this does not change the facts.

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The GGG-Ward negotiations are often twisted to suit agendas here, so here are the facts to the best of my knowledge (corrections with legit sources accepted of course).

1) GGG moving up to challenge Ward at 168 lb had been a possibility several years earlier in 2013, before Ward's legal troubles began. At that stage Golovkin was relatively unknown and was desperate for a big fight while Ward was a major star who had just won the Super 6. Ward apparently did not want to take another risky fight just then, and even if he had a change of heart, his career was soon to be derailed by legal problems. So apparently in a meeting at the HBO offices he said no - something GGG always points out and Ward has never flatly denied.

2) Fast forward several years, and things have changed. GGG is becoming well-known in comparison to Ward, whose profile has suffered from inactivity. Furthermore the prospect of the Canelo fight is very much a real one. So GGG wants to stay at or close to 160 lb, hence the 164 lb offer. Also remember that the possibility of GGG losing would hurt the Canelo fight revenue badly. So GGG wanted to be very well-paid to go to 168 lb (my sources say $8 million was what he wanted). Ward cannot make 164 lb, and he is also not happy to give GGG the lion's share of the pot. From his point of view, GGG is comparatively unproven and doesn't deserve that much. It's also the biggest fight he'll ever get as no other SMW-LHW is more popular than GGG, so he wanted to maximize his earnings there. There simply wasn't enough money in the pot for this fight, GGG getting $8 million would mean Ward got substantially less than that.

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In 2015 Ward was forced to fight either Kovalev or GGG by HBO. That's why he was suddenly keen on fighting Golovkin as it was the bigger, and to most experts, easier fight. In 2013 Golovkin was even more dangerous but more or less unknown, Ward was the bigger star. Golovkin wanted Ward then, not vice versa:

At our meeting with HBO they asked us whether we are ready to box. You know our answers - I said yes, you said no. You said something about your shoulder or promoter - I'm not interested in the reason, I only heard your "no." But you remember that HBO said then that they would need a long time to build-up the fight.

If you look at boxing without bias, you will see that the smaller star usually wants to fight the bigger star more than vice versa. This was the case with Golovkin-Ward. In 2013 Ward was a far bigger star and had no good reason to take a risk against Golovkin (there were equally lucrative and lower risk fights around, plus Ward was fighting with his promoter). In 2015 Golovkin was the bigger star and Ward was the one who wanted the fight. It's quite simple.

 

Huge sad fail this one.

 

GGG doesn't have it in him to dare to be great he fights for money nothing more.

 

Kovalev is also bigger than Ward and had a longer reach than him to. With GGG that wouldn't be the case. Ward is the bigger man and would outbox and beat GGG up on the inside. There's a reason why most of GGG's fans didn't want anything to do with Ward and made every excuse in the book as to why GGG shouldn't fight him, while Ward fans welcomed the fight.

 

I wouldn't say that quote proves GGG wanted to fight Ward in 2013.

For one he made made it two years later in response to Ward claiming he was making excuses so he could avoid the fight. Golovkin signed off with "You're dead to me" so it was only trash talk.

Look back at 2013 and you'll see GGG fought 4 times. His career path for that year had already been planned out.
He was just after signing with HBO as well so they were certainly not going to send him up to 168 to take a loss.

There was never any negotiations for them to fight in 2013 through no fault of either guy. GGG was in pursuit of the belts and Ward was entering legal problems that would keep him out of the ring for two years.

The only window of opportunity that fight had was in 2015 and GGG and his team did everything in their power to make sure it didn't happen.
The only time they showed interest in Ward was when he moved up to 175 cos they knew he was never coming back down.

 

I agree with a lot of that, as you say the only realistic chance for the fight was in 2015 when it was the GGG side which didn't want it. However, let me clarify this small point:

The meeting at the HBO offices was a long-term plan - you're right that they weren't going to send GGG up straightaway, but they were looking at something 3-5 fights ahead - i.e. late 2014 or sometime 2015. GGG agreed to this plan but it fell apart due to Ward's promotional problems.

 

This should probably be stickied.

 

The problem at MW hasn't been GGG unwilling to fight genuine threats the problem is the crooked WBC! Martinez, Cotto, Alvarez he was mandatory for them all for years..

 

Looool

Natural LMW you say ? Oscar is that you ?

So a natural LMW fights chinny Khan at 155 then goes 1 lb down and makes weight dry af zombie looking and with panties down too....only 2 months after his 26th birthday.

And you come and say he s a natural LMW ?

Are you really not that bright or just extremely naive ?

 

This.

For me, it boils down to money. There wasn't enough there to make the fight, period. If there was, we'd have seen it. Both guys were in the latter parts of their career and were/are in cash out mode. If GGG-Ward could've done a million buys, it'd have happened, and probably twice.

 

You may be right but you never know, the 168 division isn't exactly stacked, just have a quick look at boxrec.. I'm not saying boxrec is anything great, just using it to remind me of names.

The top 10 at 168 on boxrec

1 Groves
2 Ramirez
3 Eubank Jr
4 C Smith
5 Rocky Fielding
6 Uzcategui
7 DeGale
8 Jesse Hart
9 Benavidez
10 Chudinov


Other notable names..

12 Arthur Abraham
13 Braehmer
17 & 19 The Dirrells
21 Quillin


I think it's a poor division, so are you telling me GG couldn't move up and beat all of them? He could get another 3 years plus out of that lot.