Andre "S.O.G." Ward has not fought since late 2013, casting his status as the consensus No. 2 fighter in the world pound-for-pound into doubt. He returns to the ring on June 20 against Paul Smith; it will be his first fight in 17 months and it will take place at a 172-pound catch weight.
During the buildup to his return, rumors have circulated that talks are in the works to set up a Ward vs. Sergey Kovalev fight at light heavyweight. Ward did not rule out eventually facing Kovalev, but from recent comments that doesn't figure to be on the horizon for quite some time.
"Fighting at 172 is just to see how my body feels," Ward said. "Where is the safest place for me to be, is it 168...can I go up to 175? I know it's a piece that some may not care about, but it's a piece that I have to look at from my standpoint because once I go up to 175 I'm not going to be a super middleweight fighting at 175. I'm going to be a full-fledged light heavyweight and there's no coming down."
Kovalev is undefeated, and has already won twice in March against Bernard Hopkins and Jean Pascal. In both cases Kovalev fought on his opponent's turf; he took on Hopkins in Atlantic City and Pascal in Montreal. He's scheduled to fight again in July against Nadjib Mohammedi. Ward said that once he becomes a full-fledged light heavyweight, he would definitely look to fight Kovalev.
"It's possible. When I eventually get to 175 and I'm a full-fledged light heavyweight, of course at the right time that's the fight that I want. You can't come to a guy's weight class and at some point in time not want to fight the best in that division that goes without saying."
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