Home Boxing News Andre Ward questions Canelo Alvarez’s resume, says many of his opponents were...

Andre Ward questions Canelo Alvarez’s resume, says many of his opponents were past their prime

International Boxing Hall of Fame inductee Andre Ward says he regularly considers coming out of retirement but nobody calls out his name.

The 39-year-old from Oakland, California hung up the gloves six years ago with an undefeated record of 32-0 (16). He has admitted the temptation to return to the ring remains strong.

Ward also had some particularly strong words for undisputed super middleweight champion Saul ‘Canelo’ Alvarez 60-2-2 (39), saying the 33-year-old Mexican superstar has built his name on defeating boxers past their prime.

“My name was never mentioned with Canelo Alvarez until he fought a common opponent and he fought Sergey Kovalev,” Ward said in an interview with Stephen A Smith.

“Kovalev, I don’t want to say he was shot, but he was on his way out the door. He wasn’t the ‘Krusher’ at that point in time. That’s a strategic move and that’s what Canelo does.

“People get mad when you say that. He’s earned the right. He’s in the position with the fanfare that he has with a country behind him to pick and choose who he likes. That’s cool. You can do that. The only problem I have is when we start mentioning his name with the all-time great fighters – I have a problem with that because I am looking at the resume.

“And a lot of times the people point out the names, right? He beat this guy – no. When did he beat them? Oh, he was past his prime. People don’t know to look for those kinds of things. They just say it’s a name.

“But I respect Canelo for what he’s done and what he’s doing. But I don’t believe that if I was still active at that time he fought Kovalev he would have fought me because my name was never mentioned in the same breath as Canelo Alvarez. If I was active, I think it would have remained that way.”

Alvarez has regularly had to bat back claims his resume is manufactured. Just last week he shrugged off the criticism.

“Yeah it always happens – Erislandy Lara, Austin Trout, Floyd Mayweather, Miguel Cotto, Gennady Golovkin, Daniel Jacobs, Callum Smith, Billy Joe Saunders… at the end of the day, I beat practically all of them,” Alvarez said.

“If I beat [David] Benavidez, they’re gonna say, ‘Oh, why don’t you face this other guy?’ Look at my history, I’ve done everything in boxing. I’ve done it all… In this moment I’m the king and I can do whatever I want… I’m always here to make the best fights.”

Asked if he would contemplate pulling the gloves back on to challenge Alvarez, Ward admitted it would be a hard offer to refuse, But he added he didn’t expect an offer to come through any time soon.

“Yeah, of course [I would consider it]. I am hard-wired to compete,” said Ward.

“It’s like I’ve had to retire multiple times. I’ve had to talk myself off the ledge multiple times. It’s not easy. Retirement is the hardest thing I have ever done in my life… It’s been six years and nobody has called my name. There is a reason for that.”