LA Times: unpopular Ward previously did not show interest in fighting GGG

Lance Pugmire says it a little more gently than my title suggests, but that's basically what he wrote in an article posted just hours ago.

http://www.latimes.com/sports/sport...golovkin-hbo-tom-loeffler-20150915-story.html

* "strained for popularity" = Ward doesn't have a ton of fans; he's not very popular with fans

* "unrequited" = not returned. As in, the interest by Team GGG to fight Ward was not returned by Team Ward.

Team GGG has mentioned before that Ward showed a lack of interest in fighting GGG when, apparently, HBO brought his name up to Ward in the past. I'm guessing that is what Lance Pugmire is referring to here.

Team GGG spokesman Loeffler says in the article that if Ward is still at 168 pounds in early 2017 then maybe a GGG-Ward fight could happen. But first, GGG is looking to unify the middleweight belt if possible.

I think I've said it before here that I don't think this fight will ever take place between GGG and Ward. Both sides have too much to lose, particularly GGG but also Ward.

Ward seems so desperate for relevance now that should he take a GGG fight and lose it, that could solidify fans' tuning him out as a meaningful fighter for the rest of his career.

If a GGG-Ward fight does ever take place, my guess is it will be something like a Mayweather-Pacquiao bout. A fight that finally happened but which took place years after both fighters were at their best.

 

I agree with you that it seems like Ward needs the fight a lot more than Golovkin does.

I don't think the fight will ever happen. I think Team GGG will try to unify the middleweight belts and start on a campaign to top Hopkins' 20 consecutive middleweight defenses (Golovkin is at 14 now) for a new record. Something like that.