Andre Ward has revealed that he intended to move up to heavyweight to face Anthony Joshua before retiring from boxing in 2017. The American, who retired undefeated with 33 wins, disclosed the potential fights he had in mind, including a rematch with Carl Froch in the UK and a bout with Gennady Golovkin, which he claimed was turned down in under five minutes.
Ward, a former unified light-heavyweight champion, considered moving up after his victory over Sergey Kovalev. At the time, Joshua had just defeated Wladimir Klitschko in front of 90,000 fans at Wembley, holding the unified WBA and IBF heavyweight titles. Ward's trainer, Virgil Hunter, suggested the idea of facing Joshua, believing Ward could outbox the British star.
“I always seem to be knocking down giants one by one,” Ward said. “Heavyweight, that’s always been a dream of mine. It’s got to be against the right guy, but I dream big and anything is possible.” Hunter added, “Fighting a bigger man doesn’t have to do with size, it has to do with your attributes and their attributes. I think it would be a very interesting fight. I believe he could outbox Anthony Joshua.”
Ward retired in October 2017, four months after defeating Kovalev, and is regarded as one of the best pound-for-pound fighters of his era. The potential clash with Joshua would have followed the path of Roy Jones Jr, who moved from light-heavyweight to heavyweight in 2003.
