How Andre Ward can be a PPV STAR?

My OPINION, PLEASE SHARE YOURS!

Andre Ward was inactive for a couple years just after his name starting getting recognition after the Super Six tournament. I believe that time off effected him negatively and right now he's back on the right track after defeating Kovalev. For Ward to become a "House Hold Name" he should fight Danny Jacobs (If he beats GGG), Kell Brook (Catch weight 170 he would be criticized but that will be a good thing, controversy sells), Peter Quillin (at LHW and a solid fighter, people will question this move but more controversy sells), Kovalev rematch(2018 build it up even more and put on PPV and it will be a success this time 500K<, much more people will buy this ppv to see Ward lose after a couple iffy opponents he beat and close decision against Kovalev some people disagreed with from the first fight), GGG at (175 for the LHW title, Ward would have bargaining power this time with a proven PPV draw after the Kovalev rematch, this can make or break agreements on revenue/ppv/purse split). After a mega PPV with GGG, Ward can then face Stevenson at LHW to unify the titles. Ward can then move up to Cruiser Weight and adjust to the new weight by facing a top 20 opponent and if successful face Tony Bellew (2019), if he gets past Bellew he can then face David Haye at heavyweight in Vegas (late 2019), by this point Ward would be PPV box office and most of the fighters I placed in this list he could beat quite handily (Danny Jacobs, GGG, Kell Brook) he just has to sacrifice a little more to get a lot in return kind of what Mayweather did against Oscar by jumping up a weight class he's never even sparred at and also like Floyd did fighting a couple underserving opponents but where solid opponents enough to build his brand. Floyd laid out the blue print on how to become a house hold name and cocntroversy is a big part of that, Manny was loved and did good PPV numbers Floyd was hated and did massive PPV numbers ($400 Million Net Worth).

 

Ahh, but plenty of casual fans didn't find Mayweather's style attractive either but bought PPV's to see him lose. The point is that controversy sells and you must give people a reason to buy other than being entertaining and that's what Ward must do. Floyd was the most boring fighter ever according to most fans but is now worth $400 Million.

 

But that's not a definite path to success, what about building the rematch up even more? The last fight only generated 160K PPV buys, so statistically if they fought today in a rematch it would generate maybe, and I mean MAYBE 200K PPV buys. That's not good enough for either fighter to get a better pay day then the first fight, but instead this fight needs to generate atleast 300K+ buys; but for this to occur they must fight a couple recongnizable names before a rematch can take place. This is one of the reasons why Ward is saying "The rematch must make sense", he's talking about money and for the rematch to make sense they must build it, so why not take a year to fight a couple names (not too risky but good enough) and then rematch which will give them better PPV returns? Boxing is a business first!

 

Arum said the same thing about Floyd, and look at him now. It comes down to promoting yourself, kind of like you said Ward has a superior type of attitude and that has to be placed on a shelf for now and believe it or not that could be the difference between generating 160K PPV's and 500K PPV's.

 

Good point, but I don't believe Ward will ever get close to Floyd's status in PPV's but I'm more interested on how he can improve. I think we all understand he's not the type to play a villian like Floyd or go do a WWE stint but from my op, I think he can improve let's say from 160K PPV's to 300K PPV's. Let's say Ward rematch's Kovalev again and win's again, and then faces Stevenson next and wins that, then face's a recognizable name at Middleweight/SuperMW and of course wins, and this will setup big PPV match between GGG vs Ward which I think will do around 700K-1Million PPV buys and Ward wins that fight jumps up to heavyweight to face David Haye how many PPV's do you think that fight will do? How many PPV's do you even think GGG vs Ward will do following the path I just scripted out?

 

HBO will most likely keep Ward signed but they will have to put better names against him before a Kovalev rematch, which I'm pretty sure they would like to build the rematch up which I'm pretty sure HBO is capable of doing.