Former super-middleweight and light-heavyweight world champion Andre Ward revealed to the MMA Hour that he had been tempted to return to the ring on several occasions following his retirement in 2017.
The “Son of God” was unbeaten as a professional with a record of thirty-two wins having fought the likes of Sergey Kovalev, Carl Froch, Mikkel Kessler, Chad Dawson & Arthur Abraham. Ward would famously win the popular Boxing super-six tournament, which he would win and unify his WBA title with Froch’s WBC title in 2011. Ward would turn professional following a stellar amateur career which was rounded off with an Olympic gold medal at the Athens 2004 games.
Ward, who is publicising his SOG documentary, which Showtime released recently, revealed that despite his retirement, he had been considering a return to the ring. He said that he reconsidered his decision following Canelo Alvarez’s defeat of Sergey Kovalev in 2019 which saw Canelo claim the WBO world light-heavyweight title with an eleventh-round stoppage.
Ward then would reveal that he reached out to the influencer and current professional fighter, Jake Paul, regarding facing the popular social media figure in the ring.
Andre Ward says a fight against Jake Paul "makes sense" 🥊👀 #TheMMAHour
— MMAFighting.com (@MMAFighting) June 5, 2023
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“I think I would be open to something like [an exhibition fight] .... I’m not going to make a mockery of my legacy, but if it was something that made sense .... I might jump on that.”
“Like Jake Paul?” Interviewer Ariel Helwani probed.
“Hell yeah,” Ward continued. I would be open to both [an exhibition or professional match], for sure.”
Ward discussed using close contacts to make Jake Paul’s team aware he was interested in a fight. Unfortunately, he didn’t get a response, “You know why,” Ward jested.
