It is being reported an awful as of late that Paul Smith, the UK super middleweight, is in the final stage of signing a contract to face Andre Ward in Oracle Arena on June 20th in Oakland, CA. The bout would mark one of two bouts that Ward has stated he wants before taking top level foes as he wants a couple of bouts to work of ring rust in theory it seems. Smith is a decent fighter, but very limited and has never faced a fighter at the level of Andre Ward.

The card will be on BET and is rumored to also feature Salinas, CA’s Rudy Puga Jr., WBC US champ middleweight champ Tony Hirsch and possibly Karim “Hard Hitta” Mayfield. Another question is that this is Jay Z’s third boxing event of the year and one has to wonder with BET on board as well, how the marriage of hip hop and boxing will work as previous versions have been very underwhelming.