Andre Ward is gearing up for the fight of his life after coming off one last tune up bout before he steps into the ring with one of the most crippling punchers in boxing.

Indeed, the Sergey Kovalev fight has all anybody for the most part has been able to talk about for the last year or so when it comes to Andre Ward.

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Last night he dispatched Alexander Brand (highlights here) to now finally leave no obstacles in the way of his November 19th date with Kovalev.

But it’s been a frustrating time for Andre Ward (30-0-15KO) over the past five years, boxing only six times in that period due to a combination of injury and outside the ring business issues he had to contend with.

It seems like Ward has grown tired and frustrated of the topic of his inactivity being brought up by the media in the last few years. Understandably so in many ways.

After all, the reasons for this inactivity were hardly his fault.

Speaking to Jim Lampley of HBO this weekend, Ward detailed some of the reasons why he left the super-middleweight division all together and decided to move up in weight:

“Probably a couple of things. It was hard to get other 168 pounders in the ring. It was like trying to pull teeth. Some was politics, some was just not been able to make the matchups.”

He added:

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“The other piece was I wan’t to be great and it’s that simple. All those I’ve studied and continue to study to this day, Roy Jones , Bernard Hopkins, Sugar Ray Leonard, Sugar Ray Robinson, the list goes on and on, they moved up. It’s not easy. If it was easy everybody would do it. But we took on the challenge and I’m excited about it.”

It’s now onwards and upwards once again for the talented American who after having two fights this year and getting the cob webs off in two twelve round bouts, should now be looking to fine tune himself to peak at his very best come November 19th.

For those looking for something to get them hyped-up for Ward vs Kovalev, which in fairness doesn’t need much hype at all due to it’s quality, this excellent video by (credit) YouTube account Boxing’s Finest is well worth a watch: