This week there has been a lot of speculation surrounding light-heavyweight maestro Andre Ward thinking about calling it a day on his professional career. At 32 years of age and arguably in the prime of his athletic career, I can’t understand why he would though.
Okay, sure, he might have done very well financially out of his career and may not need to actually fight on for monetary reasons, but, after recording the biggest win of his career in 2016 in a (granted) contentious and razor close fight with Sergey Kovalev, why quit now when momentum is with him?
During the week in an interview with Rolling Stone Ward hinted that he was considering retiring.
Perhaps this was just a temporary feeling after the Christmas holidays as he looks ahead to what is next in 2017 at the start of the new year?
Who knows.
Andre Ward considering retirement seems a bit odd though – particularly considering the year he had in 2016:
They might act like it didn’t happen, but I’m here to tell you it did! What a year! Not just in the ring, but my life pic.twitter.com/Ae8o8efWdk
— Andre S.O.G. Ward (@andreward) January 1, 2017
The big fights that he wants and likely could have are in his grasp now, whether that be the immediate Sergey Kovalev rematch which no doubt would do relatively well on pay per view given the controversy surrounding the first fight, a showdown with WBC 175lbs titlist Adonis Stevenson or should he keep winning and a certain Gennady Golovkin keep winning, maybe Ward could even go back down to 168lbs in the coming years for one last stint at the weight if a catchweight showdown with ‘GGG’ presented itself?
Ward has recently gotten into the boxing management game too, as of late 2016, so perhaps all this Andre Ward considering retirement talk also has something to do with that – as he plots the path for his post-fight career in years to come.
As a proud warrior and a man judging by his past interviews over the years, who seems to genuinely care about his legacy, I just can’t see him calling it quits just yet personally.
