"I wouldn't be too quick to push the gas on that one. If Kovalev hit him like that and floored him, what you think gonna happen if Joshua hit him? He ain't gonna get up from no clean Joshua punch like that. He would have to grow into the heavyweight body, but I understand it, I understand the business of it, so hats off to him... that is a huge payday for Andre, but a difficult fight to win," stated world-class trainer Jeff Mayweather, who shared his thoughts on talk of light heavyweight king Andre Ward moving up to heavyweight to take on Anthony Joshua. Check it out!
PC: Did you see the fight between Andre Ward and Sergey Kovalev, and if so, what did you think of the fight?
JM: Unfortunately, I didn't see the fight because I was at an event in Delaware. I heard about the fight. I still haven't had a chance to watch it. Eventually I will get a chance to see it. I thought that the difference in the fight was going to be...most of the time, a good smart boxer can make adjustments as opposed to a guy that thinks he can just walk through an opponent or more of a slugger type of fighter. I thought Andre would prevail once again and in an even better fight because all he had to do was make some adjustments.
PC: In Floyd's only two rematches of his career, he made the rematch look much easier than the first fight and it was against two come-forward styles, which you just described.
JM: When you're a smart boxer, you can make those adjustments. Most of the time, the guys that just rely on their punching power, most of the time they can't make those adjustments because their only alternative is to try and land a big shot. If you have a good, smart fighter in front of you, they won't allow you to land that shot because most smart fighters don't get hit with the same thing twice. And that was probably the case with Kovalev was that he was going out there looking for that same thing, but the same thing wasn't there because you already did 12 rounds with this man and believe me, he's better prepared this time around than he was last time around. And he didn't buy into what Kovalev thought he would buy into, kind of like what Conor McGregor thinks Floyd is going to buy into; all this trash-talking and all the racial stuff that Kovalev was saying to him. He probably thought that was going to get inside of Andre's head and it didn't because a smart fighter is going to do what they do. They not gonna get caught up in something that small. If Floyd was to go out there and fight everyone because the way they talked about him, he probably would've lost a fight. But, when you're a master at your craft, you do what you do best, under pressure, no matter what the situation is; you stick to your game plan. And I think that was Kovalev's game plan, to get inside of Andre's head by talking all of that racial stuff and crap like that and it ended up backfiring on him.
PC: Boxing is a brutal sport anyway and once you sign a contract, you're signing it with the intent to hurt someone and their intent is to hurt you and a lot of people fed into Kovalev being angry as a reason why they felt Ward was "in trouble." Whether Kovalev was angry or not, I'm sure his intentions were to inflict damage.
JM: Anger actually against a good, smart fighter don't help you, it hurts you. You pretty much open yourself up and you can see your flaws. Things that you want to do, you're not able to do because they are not concealed. Anything in life, when you're angry, you can't even make a good decision because the decision that you make when you're angry is the decision that you will regret. It applies to boxing and it applies to life in general. Basically with him going in there with anger, all that probably did was make the fight much easier for Andre because he can see it in his face.
PC: Andre Ward is now talking about possibly moving up to cruiserweight and maybe even heavyweight, taking a page out of Roy Jones' book when he felt he had did all there was to do at light heavyweight. Stylistically, do you feel like his style could hold up in the heavier weight classes?
JM: I mean, don't get me wrong, cruiserweight, I see, but Virgil Hunter talking about Joshua, that's a different animal; that's a whole entirely different animal. I wouldn't be too quick to push the gas on that one. If Kovalev hit him like that and floored him, what you think gonna happen if Joshua hit him? He ain't gonna get up from no clean Joshua punch like that. He would have to grow into the heavyweight body, but I understand it, I understand the business of it, so hats off to him. Andre's been a great fighter for a long time, but he hasn't seen no major payday, so it's time to start trying to cash out. That is probably more of what it is than the reality of thinking Andre can really beat Joshua. But I mean, that's why they picked the UK fighter as opposed to calling out all of the heavyweights because he's going to go over there and get paid. I do understand it and I take my hat off to Virgil for starting to think that way because it's time to cash out. If you lose one fight, then okay, so be it, but at the end of the day, you got paid for it. The one person that I always think about when I think of a fighter when I say his earnings was maximized is Fernando Vargas. Vargas fought every single big name fighter that was out there during his time. He maximized his earnings. And that's kind of like what Andre is trying to do now. He's never had a taste of that really, really big payday. Now he's in the threshold of getting it. I'm sure he's going to move to #1 pound-for-pound. I think it will be deserved. The guys been doing this his whole life and it's time for him to get a $10 million payday or something like that. I think he deserves it. I mean, of course it ain't my money (laughing). No, I think he deserves it. I like Andre Ward. Andre Ward is a good brother and I'd like to see the best for him. But realistically, being honest, I see that as a way to cash out as opposed to dealing with the reality of beating Anthony Joshua. You're not going to beat Anthony Joshua just by dancing around. That's not going to happen. You're talking about a guy that, at his size, has decent speed, but has tremendous power. And he's getting better, so that is a huge payday for Andre, but a difficult fight to win.
[ Follow Percy Crawford on Twitter @MrLouis1ana ]