Tim Bradley is still insisting that the retired 41-year-old Andre Ward will defeat Anthony Joshua if that fight happens now. Bradley says Joshua’s match against Jake Paul isn’t a “real fight,” but a clash between AJ and Ward would be.
Ward (32-0, 16 KOs) has been retired for eight years since 2017 after his victory over Sergey Kovalev in their rematch. Bradley says Ward still has the ring IQ to defeat the former two-time heavyweight champion Joshua (28-4, 25 KOs).
Interestingly, Tim isn’t saying that Ward should move up to heavyweight and prove himself worthy by beating a top 10 contender to show that he rates a fight with him. He thinks it’s fine for Ward to come straight out of retirement into a clash against Joshua.
Fans think Ward’s purpose for wanting to fight Joshua is solely for financial reasons. If this were about legacy, he’d be targeting the fighters above him, like Oleksandr Usyk, Agit Kabayel, and Joseph Parker.
“I think Andre Ward beats Anthony Joshua. He’d rather fight Jake Paul than fight Andre Ward? Come on, man,” said Tim Bradley on his channel, arguing in favor of his former co-worker at ESPN, Andre Ward, for his hoped-for comeback fight against Anthony Joshua.
Would Tim still believe Ward would beat Joshua if he hadn’t worked with him on ESPN in the past when they were calling Top Rank’s fight? Ward’s age, inactivity, and his last two performances against Sergey Kovalev in 2016 and 2017 suggest that he’d be completely overmatched against Joshua or any top 15-level heavyweight.
“I get the Jake Paul fight. He brings a lot of eyes to the table, but that’s not a real fight for Joshua,” said Tim. “If he can’t knock out Jake Paul, how do you think he’s going to do against Andre Ward?”
Bradley is really reaching here to argue for Ward getting a big payday fight against Joshua. He’s creating a make-believe scenario that Joshua won’t knock out Jake Paul to support his argument for his friend, Ward, to be given the fight against AJ. It seems so obvious.
If Ward wants to fight Joshua, he needs to come out of retirement and fight some of the top 10 contenders to prove that he’s not just fighting him for the payday. These would be good options for Ward to test himself out:
- Agit Kabayel
- Richard Torrez Jr.
- Lenier Pero
- Joseph Parker
- Zhilei Zhang
- Martin Bakole
- Bakhodir Jalalov
If ‘SOG’ Ward wants that payday against Joshua badly enough, he needs to come back and fight one or two of these heavyweights to show that he belongs inside the ring with him. If not, AJ should ignore him and view him as one of the many fighters calling him out for a “Payday, payday” purposes.
“This right here [brains] is the most important thing in boxing. If a guy like Andre Ward sets their mind to doing something, he’s already diced the fight up a trillion times and knows they can win,” said Bradley.
We already know how Ward fights. He moves around, throws single shots, and then dives in to clinch. On the inside, he does a lot of wrestling, landing shots while grappling with his opponents. That was his formula to defeat Sergey Kovalev. It wouldn’t work against Anthony Joshua, and it would be so boring to watch. Fans don’t want to see a guy who moves, throws single shots, and then grabs his opponents to begin mauling. It’s just a big stall.
“Everyone says Andre Ward got dropped by a jab from Kovalev. Did you see what happened when he got up? Getting back up and doing what Andre Ward did, that’s historical stuff right there,” said Bradley.
The fight that Tim is talking about occurred in 2016, and Ward won what many fans believe was a controversial 12-round decision over Sergey Kovalev. Ignoring the questionable decision Andre was given by the judges, the fight still took place nine years ago.
Ward was 32 years old, still active with his career, and fighting at 175. He’s now 41, hasn’t fought in eight years since 2017, and would be moving two divisions to fight a 240+ lb Joshua. It’s a complete mismatch and would be a rip-off for the fans that pay to see this.
At Ward’s age, he’d be destroyed by cruiserweight champion Jai Opetaia. At heavyweight, Ward would be food for fighters like Agit Kabayel, Moses Itauma, Richard Torrez Jr, and even Dillian Whyte.
Last Updated on 08/15/2025
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