Andre Ward considers retirement, insists he rightfully beat Sergey Kovalev

We all know these been plenty of heated debates about the Andre Ward’s win over Sergey Kovalev, and Ward is completely fine with that. But despite any perceived controversy, Ward reflects on the win as the proudest moment in his career — mostly due to the amount of resolve he displayed after being dropped early in the fight.

In an interview with Rolling Stone, Ward says that although there are strong opinions on the outcome of the fight, he believes there’s “no question” that he pulled out a win while also adding:

"If you feel Kovalev edged it out or whatever the case may be, that's fine. But anybody crying 'robbery,' it just doesn't add up. There's no way you can say he won the fight by three, four, five points. It just didn't happen. We got up from that knockdown and we took over the fight and we took it to another gear. Kovalev didn't match that."

And not only does Ward feel that he rightfully beat a top pound-for-pound champion, he was also a little disappointed in Kovalev’s performance.

"I'm going to be honest, and this is taking nothing away from Kovalev because in my book he's always going to be a champion, but I expected more from him in the ring. When you hear about the invincible character that the media has portrayed, I expected more. I expected to see 'The Krusher' when it got tough in that fight and I didn't see 'The Krusher,' I didn't see that next gear that he had. I saw a fighter that's used to being the frontrunner, I saw a fighter that's used to having things his way and when it didn't work out like that he couldn't match the intensity. I obviously didn't appreciate the excuses and everything that were made after the fight, so I expected more from him."

For now, though, a lot of fan and media attention has turned towards a potential rematch between Kovalev and Ward. Kovalev has an immediate rematch clause to get another shot at Ward, but that may not matter much if Ward decides he’s content to walk away from the sport, feeling satisfied with his career accomplishments.

According to Ward, that’s something he’s considering. Ward states that he doesn’t need to box for money anymore, and after accomplishing almost everything he’s set out to do in boxing, he’ll have a long and serious discussion with his team and family before deciding to step between the ropes again. As Ward puts it, for him to continue the situation has to be right, otherwise he doesn’t know “if it makes sense to continue on."