Andre Ward must face Kessler-Magee winner, says WBA

The WBA has ruled that super middleweight champion Andre Ward will have to face the winner of the December 8 fight between Mikkel Kessler and Brian Magee, which is being contested for the vacant WBA "regular" title. Ward holds the "super" title.

Ward (26-0, 14 KO) may wind up vacating the WBA belt because of this, though that's just speculation. Right now, he's in negotiations to face Kelly Pavlik in January, and he also holds the WBC title, so he wouldn't be giving up his status as "champion," even if you hold that to sanctioning body titles instead of just common sense.

Kessler (45-2, 34 KO) and Magee (36-4-1, 25 KO) will square off in Denmark, with Kessler favored to win, as he always has in his home country. There has been talk of a Ward-Kessler rematch before, and there have been rumblings that the Kessler team and Sauerland Event would make a big money offer to bring Ward to their turf.

But there's a strong possibility Ward won't see the point in either fight, or that if he does face Pavlik and win as he likely will, he would move up to 175 pounds anyway. And frankly, if Magee upsets Kessler, you can pretty much count on Ward-Magee not happening.