29.11.05 – 2004 Gold Medalist Andre Ward’s promoter Goosen/Tutor has passed on a prior agreement to fight Chicago middleweight “Macho” Miguel Hernandez, it was announced this evening by Dominic Pesoli, President of 8 Count Productions. Said Pesoli, “This fight was supposed to happen on November 19th on the undercard of the Mayweather/Mitchell fight, then Goosen/Tutor told us Ward would fight Miguel in December..
“Early last week we signed for the fight to happen on December 15th. Everything had been agreed to and now Ward’s people are claiming Ward won’t be fighting in December and when he does return to ring they’ve made no indication of who Ward would be fighting.”
Continued Pesoli, “I’m very disappointed in the whole situation. Miguel fought on our show on October 14th, since then he’s been in training and waiting to hear when the Ward fight was going to take place. Frankly, it’s been a series of excuses without us being able to get a direct answer. We’re prepared to fight in January, all we need is a date for the fight. Miguel has acted like the true professional that he is throughout this whole ordeal.”
Speaking about Ward, Miguel said, I fought in October so when they called then I told them I couldn’t take the fight that month. After I beat Jeremiah Torres, they asked about November 19th, I said yes. Then they moved it to an eight rounder on FOX on December 15th for the same money. I agreed to that because of the opportunity to fight him on TV. Now they called and said he wouldn’t be fighting on December 15th.
Speaking about his future plans, the 31 year old Hernandez said, “The whole situation has aggravated me. I want to fight someone rated ahead of me. Jose Luis Zertuche would be perfect for me. He’s coming off a very solid win over (previously unbeaten) Jesus Gonzales and he’s ranked higher than me. I’m not getting any younger and he’s 32 so it’s a solid fight for both of us.”