Andre Ward and Gennadiy Golovkin have different versions of a story regarding a possible 2015 fight.
Two of the best fighters of their generation, Andre Ward and Gennadiy Golovkin, got involved in a heated exchange leading fans to call for the fight.
The pair went toe-to-toe on social media after retired former pound-for-pound king Ward answered a question about who he regrets not fighting.
One of those was British rival Carl Froch, who Ward beat handily anyway. The other two were Anthony Joshua and GGG.
“Froch rematch in the UK, Golovkin, [but] he turned it down in less than five minutes and A. Joshua, but I retired,” stated Ward.
Golovkin, getting wind of Ward’s claim, fired back.
He said: “Andre, stop lying to the fans. Your team made the offer AFTER I announced the fight with Lemieux and sold out MSG.
“You are still angry since then because you never sold tickets like me. HBO knew you used the offer for publicity to move to 175. Happy Birthday.”
Ward, known as the ‘S.O.G – Son Of God’ to his fans, pulled a rabbit out of the hat, seemingly soon after GGG’s response.
Posting a video of Golovkin speaking to Elie Seckbach regarding the fight in 2015, Ward claims the Kazakh puncher wanted no part of it.
However, on closer inspection, Golovkin’s broken English was awful back then, so it’s hard to determine what he meant.
ANDRE WARD
The American added an insult to his retort.
“Lil G, come on, man. Stop it,” he stated, pointing to the clip where Golovkin said “Andre Ward too much for me,” to ES News.
Again, not taking kindly to Ward’s recollection, the middleweight champion replied: “My English is getting better. Your memory is getting worse.”
Concluding the birthday exchange, Ward added: “I have receipts. Stop playing.”
The back-and-forth led to fans calling for the pair to trade blows in 2022 despite Golovkin having links to fights with Ryota Murata and Canelo Alvarez.
Turning 38 on Wednesday, Ward has been out of action since defeating Sergey Kovalev to become the world’s number one fighter.
At the same time, Golovkin is 40 this coming April and still a world champion. The one big problem is the weight, though.
Ward was considering cruiserweight and heavyweight moves due to the bulk he added when retiring.
As Golovkin is still at 160 pounds, the whole situation looks to be a non-starter.
