It was officially announced
on Thursday that Andre Ward's shoulder, injured last month during training, would
keep him from performing on March 2nd. By this time, Ward had
already pushed back his bout against Kelly Pavlik a few times from its original date of
January 26th.
Ward released the following
statement: “When I first got injured, there was a lot of inflammation and the
MRI was misread by the first radiologist. I’ve been doing extensive rehab and
the shoulder was getting stronger but after three-and-a-half weeks of rehab,
there was still slight pain that had me concerned enough to get two additional
opinions. It was then diagnosed that there is a small tear in my shoulder
capsule. It’s not a major tear but I can either rest it and see if it heals
itself or speed up the process by surgically repairing it and be stronger than
I was before the injury and that’s what we opted to do.”
Ward, the reigning super middleweight
champion of the world (and scheduled to go through a surgical procedure in the
Bay Area next week), added, “I’m working with one of the best orthopedic
surgeons and physical therapists in Northern California and I know that I will
come back stronger than before. I appreciate all the support that I’ve already
received and my fans can rest assured that I’m going to be back in the ring as
soon as possible. Despite the injury, I still plan to have a big 2013 and hope
to have two fights in the New Year. I was really looking forward to the fight
with Pavlik. Everything was on board and situations happen but I wish Kelly
Pavlik and his team nothing but the best in the future.”
This now leaves Pavlik with
an open dance date.
“Well, we're going to do
something with Kelly Pavlik,” said his promoter, Bob Arum, after the news
broke. “Carl Moretti is working on it now. Obviously, he wanted to do the fight
with Ward but it can't happen for awhile. But we'll have Kelly in the ring by
March.” Moretti told Maxboxing, “I think every ‘60 to ‘68-pounder is a
possibility but given the time with this just happening and the holidays, I
wouldn't say any traction has been made.”
Two names being mentioned
for “The Ghost” of Youngstown, Ohio are Arthur Abraham (who holds a belt at
super middleweight) and Lucian Bute.
“Kelly wants to fight big
fights,” said his manager, Cameron Dunkin. “He had two warm-up fights, one in
San Antonio and then he had the fight on ESPN here in Vegas and then he got the
“[Boxing] After Dark” shot with Will Rosinsky and he was happy about that. But
he wanted to continue going forward and nothing really happened and he just
keeps telling me, ‘Cameron, I want to fight big fights. I don't want to fight
small, little fights anymore. I want to fight on the big stage and if I can't
do it, I'll retire. I want to fight big fights.’”
When asked if either Abraham
or Bute were realistic, Dunkin answered, “I don't know but those were the ones
I said, ‘Absolutely,’ and I told Bob to reach out and do what he could do. I
know Kelly's all for it and I just don't know what their schedules are and it's
really going to be up to them. We're definitely into fighting these guys.” (Bute
is a huge draw in Montreal and most likely a Bute-Pavlik fight would take place
at the Bell Centre. As for the possibility or willingness to travel to Germany to
face Abraham, Dunkin stated, “I think so, yeah. Kelly has said before that he
would.”)
However, remember this: This
wasn't Top Rank's date with HBO (which was to have televised this affair).
Pavlik isn't guaranteed to be on this slot.
Moretti points out, “The
whole scenario is different now because this was Andre Ward and Dan Goossen
making an offer we accepted. We weren't really in a position of making the
offer. Now, it takes a whole new dynamic where we're trying to make a whole new
match with Kelly Pavlik. So everything changes, the date, the site, the
opponent, who you're working with, what makes sense, strategy. All that stuff.”
INTERBUTE
Had a chance to talk to Jean
Bedard of InterBox (which handles Bute) for a few minutes on Thursday evening.
He made it clear that they are absolutely interested in a spring showdown with
Pavlik.
As for the contracted
rematch with Carl Froch, that will be pushed back into the second half of 2013.
Froch looks like he'll be taking on Mikkel Kessler in a rematch.
Also, Bedard noted that Bute
would be getting married in June.
So there's your Bute update.
FLASH
So what's next for the
consensus 2012 “Fighter of the Year,” Nonito Donaire? Well, Arum isn't wavering
from his comments in Houston (where Donaire blew out Jorge Arce a couple of
weeks ago).
“We want him to fight [Guillermo]
Rigondeaux. Absolutely.”
So does that mean that any
possibility of a Donaire-Abner Mares fight has evaporated?
“I think the Mares fight can
be made and we'll try to get that done,” said Arum, who pointed out that Mares
has a WBC mandatory obligation to fulfill. Should that get taken care of (and
assuming Donaire also defeats the talented Cuban), Arum stated, “Then what
we'll do is offer Golden Boy a substantial sum of money for Golden Boy and
Mares. If they take it, fine; if they don't take it, we move on.”
(There's also rumors that Arum
is looking to stage Donaire's next bout in Macau. Yeah, here we go again with
that business...)
FRIDAY FLURRIES
According to Stephen
Espinoza of Showtime, Hank Lundy is all set to go versus Lucas “The Machine”
Matthysse on January 26th Y’ know,
with Lundy, there always seem to be issues, aren't there?...By the way, Golden
Boy Promotions CEO Richard Schaefer says that card will take place at the Hard
Rock in Las Vegas...It looks more and more like Gavin Rees will get the
assignment against Adrien Broner on February 16th in Atlantic City
on HBO...Golden Boy, which has recently applied for a U.K. promotional license,
announced the signing of 2012 Olympic bronze medalist Anthony “Wake Me up
Before You” Ogogo (yes, I just went all Chris Berman and dropped a “Wham”
reference)...OK, so what happens to the Chris Arreola-Bermane Stiverne fight (which
was supposed to lead-off the HBO broadcast prior to Ward-Pavlik)? Is there any
chance that fight stays on March 2nd and HBO makes it a “Boxing
After Dark”? Never, ever, ever, ever count out Al Haymon and his influence...San Jose State had a great season on
the gridiron; didn't they? How 'bout them Spartans?...Is it just me or is Kobe
not allowing Steve Nash be Steve Nash enough of the time?...
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