Andre Ward: I’m Not Breaking Retirement To Fight Canelo


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Andre Ward (32-0, 16 KOs), 35-years-old, has no desire to come out of retirement for a potential mega-bout with Mexican superstar Canelo Alvarez.

Ward, a former unified super middleweight and light heavyweight world champion, retired from the sport in September of 2017. The decision was very unexpected, because at the time Ward was actually discussing the idea of moving up to cruiserweight for a fight with Tony Bellew.

He last saw action in that same year, when he stopped Sergey Kovalev in the eight round to retain the WBA, IBF, WBO light heavyweight titles.

And last week, Canelo moved up by two weight classes to score an eleventh round brutal knockout of Kovalev to capture the WBO light heavyweight title.

After the fight, there was several calls for a mega-bout with Ward at the weight.

Although there would be a lot of money on the table, Ward has no intention of returning for that fight.

“I’m not coming out of retirement to fight Canelo Alvarez. There’s been a lot of talk when that fight was signed – and obviously since Canelo got the victory over Sergey Kovalev. My phone’s been blowing up non-stop. There’s been a lot of pressure from individuals in the business, entertainers, you name it, trying to pull me out and it’s just not something that I’m interested in doing,” Ward told SportsCenter.

“But don’t get me wrong. I’m a fighter at heart. It’s not hard to talk me into a fight. It’s actually harder to talk me off the ledge and I have great team members. We sit down and talk about these things and I have to keep my word – and I have to stick to my conviction that I made Sept. 21, 2017 [to retire]. I feel like I’m gonna be a better asset to the sport of boxing, my family, my church….. all the things that I’m doing as a retired fighter than I would be if I came back.”


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