By Carlos Boogs

IBF, WBO, WBA light heavyweight champion Andre “SOG” Ward (31-0, 15 KOs) has promised to leave no doubt on June 17th, when he faces Sergey “Krusher” Kovalev (30-1-1, 26 KOs) in a rematch.

Last November at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Ward got off the floor in the second round to win a twelve round unanimous decision over Kovalev to capture the three light heavyweight world titles.

The rematch is scheduled to take place in the same city, but this time at the Mandalay Bay Events Center. Like the first meeting, the rematch will be distributed live by HBO Pay-Per-View.

Since the outcome of the first fight, there has been a lot of trash talk between the two sides.

Kovalev and his handlers believe Ward was running scared from the rematch and only agreed because he was bound by the immediate rematch clause.

“You’ve got perception and you’ve got reality. You’ve got a lot of misinformation coming from that side. You’ve got a lot of lies coming from that side. A lot of old school tactics. It’s 2017 man. All that old school stuff that his side is trying to do, it’s not going to work," Ward said.

"At the end of the day, we’ve got a date. You’re selling fear, we’re not buying it. At the end of the day, you’ve got to see me June 17. I don’t care what you say, I don’t care where you’re from, I don’t care how you came up, it doesn’t matter bro. You’re going to have to see me June 17, it’s that simple."

There was a lot of back and forth trash talk, where Ward even threatened the possibility of retirement. The Olympic gold medal winner admits that he didn't have to take this fight, but he wanted to do this rematch for the fans who were clamoring for a second meeting with Kovalev. 

“I didn’t have to take this fight. This fight is for you, the fans. This fight is for the boxing community, because this is the fight everybody clamored about. At the end of the day, where I come from, it’s about showing up. It’s not about all that talking. It sells tickets, it sells Pay-Per-Views and we get a couple of headlines. But if you watch my career, we don’t say anything we just go get it done. June 17 is going to be no different. Reality check," Ward said.