Floyd Mayweather: Ward lost to Kovalev, he's not the #1 P4P fighter

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“I like Andre Ward but one thing about me - call a spade a spade. [Ward] didn’t win,” Mayweather said. “Chocolatito has to be number one. He haven’t lost yet and he’s a helluva fighter.”

“Do I like Andre Ward? Yes, I do like Andre Ward. But Andre Ward got to make some major changes if you going to fight Kovalev again. You got to make some major changes. You got to go get you a trainer that’s been in the crunch before.”

Ward has been trained for his entire career by Virgil Hunter, who also works with such boxers as Andre Berto, Amir Khan and several others. Hunter was just hired by Daniel Jacobs, who plans to use him as an assistant trainer for the March 18th showdown with WBC, WBA, IBO, IBF middleweight king Gennady Golovkin. If Ward intends to fight Kovalev for a second time, Mayweather is advising him to get rid of Hunter.

"Virgil Hunter’s not a good trainer at all. That’s just my honest opinion. Virgil Hunter is a cool guy. He’s a nice guy but a guy who’s never fought before, that’s never been in a crunch moment. How can he tell you about a crunch moment if he’s never been in a crunch moment?," Mayweather said.

"I need a trainer that’s in my corner that’s been in there before and felt contact and know how it is to be in a fight. I don’t care if it’s an amateur fight. You have to have some type of experience at boxing. So can Virgil Hunter be in my corner? Absolutely not. But do I think he’s a cool guy? Absolutely."

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