In this video interview with FightHype, Andre Ward is asked about Floyd Mayweather's criticism of him moving up to take on light heavyweight champion Sergey Kovalev. Mayweather said he believed that the fight was being shoved down Ward's throat and that the fix was in to get him beat, and that Ward should've stuck around at 168 to make a fight with Gennady Golovkin. Check out what Ward has to say in response to Mayweather's comments:
"My thing is, like, if you're a veteran in this sport and you have something to say, or you feel like you have some advice that you can give a young fighter like myself - we know a lot of the same people man, just pick up the phone.
"Personally, I don't air stuff like that out in front of cameras. Because then you gotta ask the question ‘what's the motive?' You wanna be the first to say, if you happen to be right, that ‘I said it?' I mean what's the motive behind it because we know a lot of the same people? We used to have the same manager, James Prince. I'm not hard to get in contact with. I've talked to Floyd several times on the phone.
"So if you really feel like it's something from a business standpoint, that I need to make some different moves, and maybe I shouldn't do certain things — if you really cared and it's really an issue, pick up the phone and call. So being that he didn't, that's his opinion.
"And let me say this - he may be right! This may be some kind of set-up to get beat. Don't mean it's gonna work, though. You gotta realize, I didn't get invited to the Super Six, me and Andre Dirrell, me and Jermain Taylor, we didn't get invited to the Super Six because they thought we were some great fighters and they wanted us to win. We made it interesting.
"It was about Arthur Abraham, it was about Carl Froch...it was about Mikkel Kessler. And then as the tournament wore on people kinda turned on them and said ‘ah, they're just European fighters, they're one-dimensional,' but that's not what they said in the beginning. So the fix has been in. The traps have been there.
"I just stay focused and I have a great team around me. I have a relationship with God that I hold dear to me, and I hit my knees and I pray about stuff like this...And believe it or not, I feel led to make certain decisions and I feel led to not make certain decisions. And sometimes God will send you in what looks like ‘a trap' because he wants to show up and show out.
"So Mayweather may be right. We gonna see Saturday night..."