Andre Ward’s inactivity is nothing to do with Dan Goossen, it’s because no one will fight him

ANDRE WARDโ€™S trainer Virgil Hunter has said his fighterโ€™s inactivity is not a result of wrangling with promoter Dan Goossen, but the failure of leading super-middleweights to step up and challenge him.

โ€œItโ€™s not the issues with the promoter that is keeping him from fighting, itโ€™s the fact that no one wants to step up and fight,โ€ said Hunter about Ward, who has been inactive since November 2013. โ€œUnfortunately weโ€™re in an era now where there isnโ€™t 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? Itโ€™s absurd. There are no willing challengers. I donโ€™t understand it. It is what it is.โ€

Hunter is clearly frustrated but insists he, nor Ward, will lose any sleep over the situation.

โ€œIf people wonโ€™t fight him because he is too good, they should come out and say that. If it turns out heโ€™s too good for his own good, then heโ€™ll have to live with that.โ€

With Ward missing out on his peak years, would they consider a move to light-heavyweight?

โ€œThereโ€™s 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 wonโ€™t.โ€

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