Virgil Hunter: “If Andre Ward’s gonna move up into the division, you want to fight the best and Kovalev’s the top dog in that division”

Virgil Hunter is regarded by many as one of the best trainers in the sport and his success in the corner led to him being named the 2011 Trainer Of The Year. Hunter currently works with former world champions Andre Ward, Amir Khan, Andre Berto and also trains younger boxers looking to make their way to the spotlight.

In part 1 of my “On The Ropes” boxing radio interview with Virgil Hunter, I discuss his stable of star boxers and get this thoughts on their future. Hunter speaks on Andre Ward’s knee injury and shares his views on the move up to light heavyweight. Virgil also discusses the potential Ward-Kovalev fight and how he sees Ward doing in that fight. Additionally, Hunter talks about Mayweather-Berto and if he thinks that was Mayweather’s last fight. Here is what Virgil Hunter had to say.

Jenna J: Andre Ward recently suffered an injury in training, can you let the fans know what type of injury he suffered and how long it’s expected to keep him out of the ring?

Virgil Hunter: Well it shouldn’t keep him out long. In his zealousness and excitement of getting that date, he simply just pushed it too hard too soon. I think he understands now because he and I have talked about it. As you get a little older you just can’t come out of the garage and just break off six miles, you have to give the tendons and ligaments a chance to adjust. I think that part is being taken care of now.

There was a lot of swelling in the knee, which surprised us. We weren’t too alarmed at first but it simply wouldn’t go down because of course he had to train everyday. Andre is a really gung ho kid with the pain tolerance and it’s hard to slow someone down when they’re driven like that.

Andre really needed to take maybe a week or so off, but at that point we weren’t able to do that because we were closing in on the date and we had the sparring guys here. We just treated it the best way that we could and hoped that it went down and that we could work around it, but the swelling just wouldn’t go down.

It was a tough decision that I had to make, it wasn’t his decision, it was mine. Once it started hurting, that did it for me. At first it was just the swelling and we kind of got around it, but once the pain started accompanying the swelling, we couldn’t take it any further. We didn’t want to risk damage further up the road.

Jenna J: Andre just signed a three fight deal with HBO and all the fights have to take place at light heavyweight. How comfortable are you with that move up in weight mostly because he can’t find the opponents at 168lbs?

Virgil Hunter: I find it interesting that you can’t find an opponent at 168lbs, you have a lot of new faces in that division and you also have new champions in that division. I think the opponents were there and I’m quite surprised that he was asked to go to that division before he and Golovkin got a chance to fight. It didn’t happen, so we made the move, but it’s unfortunate that the public was denied that fight because it’s a fight that we really wanted and I think the public wanted it, and it didn’t happen.

Jenna J: The three fight deal centers around the third fight being a matchup with Sergey Kovalev. How do you feel about that fight taking place?

Virgil Hunter: If he’s gonna move up into the division, you want to fight the best and Kovalev’s the top dog in that division. He’s the best, he has a fearsome reputation, and he’s an excellent fighter with great punching power, great pedigree. That’s always been what we’ve done, we fight the best, so it’s a no brainer.

If you move into a division, you should want to fight the best and Sergey Kovalev is certainly the best. We feel good about the fight and when the fight comes, we look forward to it.

Jenna J: I want to talk to you about Andre Berto. Now that you’ve had a few months to reflect on it, what are your thoughts on Berto’s fight with Floyd Mayweather?

Virgil Hunter: I’m proud of Andre Berto in that fight, particularly some of the things he overcame, mainly serious health issues that we were able to troubleshoot that had been plaguing him for quite a while. I was surprised that he was even able to fight before he and I even merged together.

He had some serious organ issues but we found the right holistic practitioners to help us solve that problem and bring his health back up to par. I think it was quite apparent that his energy was pretty high and that he was in good condition for that fight and what a lot of people thought would happen never even got close to happening.

I think it was a big mental boost for him. Me as his coach, I always felt that he could push it even harder, but in a situation like that, I thought he handled it quite nicely and I look forward to him catapulting off of that fight with confidence to continue his career and also show what his critics felt was apparent was not apparent but was due to some unknown health issues that he had. We’re just ready to move forward and I’m looking forward to his next fight.

Jenna J: Do you think that was Floyd Mayweather’s last fight? Do you think that was the end or do you think he’ll come back?

Virgil Hunter: Yes I think it was his last fight, I don’t think he will come back. I think the reason why is because of the negativity associated with him getting 49-0 and coming back, and the talk of records and who deserved it and who didn’t deserve it.

I don’t think he will come back at all, and he has no reason to because I don’t think he would be given full credit for breaking 49-0 anyways. That was let known to him before he even retired, so why should he risk anything to break that record that so many people won’t acknowledge? I think it was a wise decision and I believe he’s true to the decision and I hope he keeps his word, I hope he stays retired.