ANDRE WARDโS trainer Virgil Hunter has said his fighterโs inactivity is not a result of wrangling with promoter Dan Goossen, but the failure of leading super-middleweights to step up and challenge him.
โItโs not the issues with the promoter that is keeping him from fighting, itโs the fact that no one wants to step up and fight,โ said Hunter about Ward, who has been inactive since November 2013. โUnfortunately weโre in an era now where there isnโt James Toney, Gerald McClellen, Mike McCallum, Nigel Benn, Chris Eubank around. Imagine those guys having someone like Andre Ward in their weight class โ the number two pound-for-pound โ and not wanting to fight him? Itโs absurd. There are no willing challengers. I donโt understand it. It is what it is.โ
Hunter is clearly frustrated but insists he, nor Ward, will lose any sleep over the situation.
โIf people wonโt fight him because he is too good, they should come out and say that. If it turns out heโs too good for his own good, then heโll have to live with that.โ
With Ward missing out on his peak years, would they consider a move to light-heavyweight?
โThereโs no one at light-heavyweight right now apart Sergey Kovalev and Bernard Hopkins. The super-middleweight division is much deeper than the light-heavyweights, so why would he move up? He wonโt.โ