Andre Ward confirms Sergey Kovalev's trainer reached out about switching teams

Ward said trainer John David Jackson 'did that and more. Much, much more'

The promotional build ahead of the light heavyweight championship rematch between Andre Ward and Sergey Kovalev has been largely pedestrian outside of general trash talk surrounding Ward's contested decision victory last November. 

But things have suddenly heated up over the past week in an unexpected way, just two weeks out from their June 17 rematch in Las Vegas (HBO PPV, 9 p.m. ET). 

Reports have swirled that Kovalev's trainer, John David Jackson, reached out to Ward after the first fight to inquire about swapping teams. While both teams have their own version about what actually happened and who reached out to whom first, both agreed that conversations did take place. 

Ward could only laugh about the issue when asked, telling CBS Sports that Jackson and Kovalev's promoter, Main Events, were "doing a lot of damage control right now." He went on to say that much more truth surrounding the situation would come to light in the next two weeks ahead of the rematch. 

"Without getting too much into that, what was stated that [Jackson] did, he did that and more," Ward said during an appearance on CBS Sports' "In This Corner" podcast. "Much, much more."

The first time the story was brought to light seemed to come in the release of HBO's half-hour preview show last week, which featured a reveal from Jackson during an interview about what went wrong during the first fight. 

"I'm going to let the fans know a basic truth of the first fight," Jackson said. "Honestly, Sergey brought another guy in from Russia [into the corner] to speak and during the fight I was limited to what I could say. So how are you going to limit me on what I am going to say when I devised a plan for you to fight this kid? 

"So now you go to another guy and I don't know what he's telling you. I've never seen him fight. First time in my life [I had ever seen him], so I know he's not a boxer."

Ward has repeatedly referenced intel he received before their first fight about problems in Kovalev's camp. In his own cryptic way, it appeared as if Ward was teasing that the information may have been relayed to his camp from Jackson himself.

"If you listen to me and James Prince, my manager, on the press tour, we alluded to that," Ward said. "We alluded to somebody in Kovalev's camp picking up the phone and doing a lot of talking. Not a lot of people caught it because we didn't say a name but we knew everything that was going on in his situation. 

"We knew why [Jackson] wasn't at either of those press conferences. We knew the whole thing, we just didn't talk about it and we probably won't say everything that happened. They are just doing a lot of damage control right now and it is all 100 percent legitimate. One-hundred percent."

In a recent interview with BoxingScene.com, Jackson claimed it was Ward's team that approached him with an offer after the first fight, which the trainer took as Ward's attempt to find out Kovalev's shortcomings. It was information that Jackson ultimately deemed not for sale. 

"I had mentioned it to Kathy [Duva of Main Events] and I mentioned it to [Kovalev's manager] Egis [Klimas]," Jackson said. "I never told the fighter. It was something that he didn't need to know. He didn't need to know that. First of all, it never happened. So why even put it in his mind? Now that he knows about it, if he wants to talk about it I'll tell him, 'Hey, I'm here. I stayed loyal to you. I didn't go anywhere.' And the offer was good. But here was my thing – I needed Fort Knox. If I was gonna leave, I needed Fort Knox." 

Ward disputed Jackson's claim, saying the trainer reached out to him first and made an absurd offer financially. The decision to decline, Ward said, was easy. All it took was a common sense approach. 

"What sense does that make? I have one of the best trainers in the world," Ward said of Virgil Hunter. "That's not the first time we fought a John David Jackson fighter. The first time was Allan Green and the second time was Kovalev. What sense does that make for us to pick up the phone and ask if he's available to come over to our side? Like that makes zero sense at all. Who would do that? That makes no sense. There's no need for it. We don't need John David Jackson." 

Late last week, Kovalev largely dismissed the topic while speaking with reporters at his media day. 

"People can say everything what they want," Kovalev said. "But let's to see on the fact. We are now still working together and it means that it's bullshit what people are saying around us. We still are working together and we will keep doing this in the rematch on June 17."

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