Boxing hall of famer Andre Ward stopped by the popular Breakfast Club Podcast on Power 106 FM in NYC to promote his book “Killing the Image,” while there, he was asked about the current state of boxing. One of the hot topics discussed was the undisputed super middleweight champion Saul ‘Canelo’ Alvarez and whether he is ducking the interim WBC super-middleweight champion David Benavidez.
Charlamagne Tha God, one of the hosts, asked if Canelo doesn’t ever fight Benavidez, will that be a strike against him? Ward quickly answered, “Absolutely.” Then he continued, “The Canelo fans call me a hater because I’m telling the truth.” Ward would then go into the fact that he and Canelo were always mentioned in the same conversations but were in two different weight classes when both were active simultaneously. They “never looked at each other’s way,” and Ward clarified that Canelo never “ducked” him.
Ward then questioned Canelo’s resume and how he fought guys coming off losses or who was 35 (Sergey Kovalev) and a shell of what they were at one point.
“I’m not knocking the hustle, but you lose me when you start saying, ‘I’m the best fighter in the world.’ Canelo is a really good fighter, but you don’t really know how good you really are until you fight the other best. You shouldn’t fight top guys every fight out. That’s not wise, and that’s not safe. You need tune-up fights. But when most of your fights are like that, come on man.”
Ward continued after being asked about Canelo’s three fights with Gennadiy “GGG’ Golovkin. “He didn’t even want to fight Golovkin. HBO pressed him. Made Golovkin get in the ring after one of his fights and call him out, so he had to respond to do it, and most of their fights were controversial.”
Ward has been making media rounds nationwide as his book “Killing the Image” is available everywhere books are sold.
More must-reads: