Middleweight boxing superstar Gennady Golovkin could eventually face Andre Ward in the near future. The two boxers were linked to each other earlier this year but the proposed fight did not materialize.
Golovkin decided to stay in the middleweight division despite getting tempting offers to move up to 168 in his next fight. The decision to stay at 160 made the fight against Ward impossible to make.
At this point, the fight becomes even harder to arrange after Ward moved up to the 175-pound division earlier this year. Previous reports indicated that Ward wanted the fight against Golovkin but the latter's camp did not accept the offer.
However, Golovkin's trainer Abel Sanchez denied that they turned down an offer to face Ward. Sanchez told BoxingScene that had nothing to turn down because there were no negotiations for the fight.
"It's not a fact that we didn't want to fight him," Sanchez said. "We wanted to fight him."
Sanchez expressed confidence that the big-money bout will eventually happen. However, the veteran trainer stressed that Ward and his camp cannot dictate the terms for the bout, reiterating that it will take two to tango.
"I think that's a great fight," Sanchez said of the Golovkin-Ward bout. "I think that's a fight that will happen eventually, but I think that it has to be understood that there's two parties and there's not just Andre Ward."
The weight disparity will likely be one of the possible hurdles in the negotiation. Sanchez said that Golovkin is willing to fight at 168 but it remains to be seen if Ward will agree to return to a lower weight class.
It is worth noting, though, that Golovkin has a verbal agreement with fellow superstar Saul Alvarez for a possible fight next year. It means that he will likely stay at 160 until he gets a crack at Alvarez.
Alvarez recently told Las Vegas Review Journal that he is not avoiding Golovkin. The Mexican insisted that they need more time to finalize the fight, which is expected to become among the biggest bouts in history.
"This is the type of fight that needs to take time with negotiations, and many other things relating to that," Alvarez said. "We all want that fight, but like I said, negotiations take time for this type of fight and we're trying to fix everything to make it happen."
Watch highlights of Golovkin's recent win over Dominic Wade.