Wednesday 21 June 2017 11:26, UK
Johnny Nelson says Andre Ward should forget about fighting Anthony Joshua at heavyweight, but believes Tony Bellew could be an ideal opponent in Britain...
When Andre Ward was in the ring afterwards and talked about maybe fighting Anthony Joshua, I thought no - it's just a snap shout out. In reality it's just talk and isn't happening. That is a step too far for Ward.
As a fighter, you like to hold one clear advantage over your opponent. Your superior height, reach, or speed. But with a fighter like Anthony Joshua, he's got height, reach, speed, and power. No matter how good you are, if you cannot match one of those, you're going to get beat. Andre Ward would suffer his first professional defeat, without a doubt. Anthony Joshua would knock him out.
Andre Ward would suffer his first professional defeat, without a doubt. Anthony Joshua would knock him out.
Ward is talking about stepping up in weight and Tony Bellew could be an ideal opponent. For a big fight against Ward, I think Tony could go back down to cruiserweight again.
It might be a similar style of fight to his last two bouts with Sergey Kovalev. Bellew has got that snap, he's got the power, the height and reach, while Andre Ward has got those slick skills and the clever movement. But you've got to give it to Tony Bellew, because he doesn't care who it is. He'll say 'yeah, let's do this'.
I would love to see Ward in England. He's been over, he likes the vibe here in England. Americans want to come over and get in these big fights, because these are the kind of nights that fighters dream of. But it's about the opponent and the most realistic opponent for Andre Ward in the UK is Tony Bellew.
