Thoguht on GGG vs Ward

of course they knew ward wouldn't come to 164...which is why they said it......how could ward make a serious offer when he could tell they didndt want the fight and they said just as much "we have plans to unify but maybe 2017 is possible"....pretty much tells you they have 0 interest

 

Now that K2 and Golovkin have offered to step up and fight Old Man Hopkins at 168, it is fairly obvious they ducked Ward.
If Hopkins were 45 years old, I doubt K2 would be interested in facing him.

 

That response to Ward with 164 was in response to Ward saying Fall 2016 at 50/50

Has nothing to do with wanting or not wanting the fight, no team on the planet would give up pushing a PPV mandatory to change divisions at the request of someone who cant fill their hometown arena whether they want the fight or not.

Who knows, maybe they didn't want the fight. Just the "evidence" frequently cited isn't particularly compelling to anyone who doesn't spend several hours a day hating on GGG and/or his fans.

You might have a point about Roc though. Cotto at least has a strong lawyer to rep him, and make sure that once the terms are actually good that the deals get closed.

But by the same token, people should recall that it took like 8 months to finish the E-Rod fight with Ward wanting lighter touches and HBO demanding the opponent be somewhat credible. It was not an easy negotiation then either, though E-Rod signing with Haymon in the middle of them probably didn't make anything easier either.

The last time Ward had a "clean" negotiation, relatively speaking to the degree any boxing negotiation is ever clean or simple was S6.

 

I never really thought it was a fight that needed to be made. Ward looking to move up from 168 and GGG wanting to stay at 160. And as much as I want GGG to move up to Supermiddle his 1st step would be to face THE MAN at that weight who is also argued by some as the P4P number 1. Cant blame GGG wanting a small catchweight for that one.

But recent history shows that Ward, or more so RocNation are really hard to negotiate with.

 

If you've got to choose between two divas, you may as well target the one that's 10x as popular.

I might get the argument somewhat if Andre was ready to fight immediately, but the dude put him on the same timeline as Canelo and is no easier to negotiate with.