On his current situation:
"You guys know I'm dealing with a promotional situation that's not good right now. That shouldn't stop me from fighting. My manager is pressing hard, letting the promoter know that it's time to get me a fight. I'm staying ready. It's easy to get discouraged with these kind of things, and not want to train, and it's depressing dealing with this kind of stuff. I've chosen to take, like, the Bernard Hopkins effect, where, you know, I let it fuel me, and I just stay hungry, because I know these type of things happen. This will pass, like all tough situations pass, and it's going to be a good thing when it does."
On the specifics of the issues with promoter Dan Goossen:
"It's tough to go into it. I want to respect Dan, respect the process. But if I'm going to these lengths and this degree, it's for a reason. It's always a situation where people are on the outside looking in, have an opinion. 'Ward needs to fight, he needs to not fight in the courtroom,' and people don't realize that nobody wants to be in a courtroom. Nobody wants to spend attorney's fees and deal with these kind of things, but this is my business. I am the business. If any entity or any business, when things internally aren't going right, you're going to deal with them, and you're going to do whatever you gotta do to get them straight. Like, I've invested most of my life into this business. So I'm not going to just stand back and just allow anything to take place when it comes to my business. So that's what it is. It's just certain things that were not being done right, and you know, I'm not the type of person to go try to sue somebody the first time we have an issue. I tried to talk about it, deal with it like men, the situation wasn't rectified. So unfortunately, it went to this degree, and we're in the process of trying to work it out."
On the mental affects of the layoff:
"It's tough, but I mean, I think honestly, man, between the Chad Dawson and Edwin Rodriguez fight, I don't think it was a case of people forgetting about me, I think it was just a case of people being eager to see me back. That was encouraging. I feel like my fan base grew, believe it or not. I stayed busy, I stayed out there, I didn't disappear and go in a hole somewhere, so that helped. I'm going through a similar situation. It's not going to be 14 months like it was, but these types of things happen. If you look back at the legendary career of Bernard Hopkins, this guy went through the same thing. Nobody remembers that now, though. So these are things you gotta go through, they're growing pains. You learn, you figure it out. But then when it's all said and done and you are where you're supposed to be, you're happy you went through these stages. It's unfortunate, it's not ideal, but it's part of this business."
On when he expects to be back:
"It could be sorted out tomorrow. It could be sorted out six months from now. The main thing is, my manager is doing his job. He's putting pressure to get me not just a fight, but the fight that I'm supposed to have at this stage in my career. ["Pay-per-view?"] Absolutely. I've kind of, I've paid my dues for many, many years, and I've gotten to the point I've gotten to by winning. It's time for the other side to step up and get the right type of fights. They're doing their job, I'm allowing them to do their job, it is going to work out, it is going to pass, it's not going to last forever, but this is just the season we're in right now."