By Rick Reeno

In less than three weeks, one of the most anticipated fights of the year will take place when Andre Ward (31-0, 15 KOs) steps in the ring with Sergey Kovalev (30-1, 26 KOs) for a second time.

Their HBO Pay-Per-View fight takes place on June 17th, from the Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas.

The first fight, which took place last November at T-Mobile Arena, saw Ward survive an early knockdown to win a very close twelve round unanimous decision to capture Kovalev's IBF, WBA, WBO light heavyweight titles.

There was a lot of controversy over the scoring and the outcome. All three judges scored it 114-113 for Ward.

There was an immediate rematch clause, which Kovalev exercised to force the second pay-per-view showdown.

A few weeks ago, there were industry rumblings of potential issues between Kovalev and head trainer John David Jackson.

The most shocking of the rumblings was a claim that Jackson was considering the possibility of jumping ship to work with Ward.

BoxingScene.com reached out to Ward's manager, James Prince, and the champion's legal adviser, Josh Dubin - who both confirmed that conversations were indeed held with Jackson regarding the possibility of working with Ward.

Both Prince and Dubin are very friendly with Jackson, because all three of them have a business relationship with heavyweight Bryant Jennings. But both were shocked when Jackson reached out to discuss the idea of coming on board.

According to Prince and Dubin, these discussions took place when Roc Nation and Main Events were working hard to finalize the rematch.

"It wasn't out of blue as so much as we speak from time to time because he trains Bryant Jennings. As it relates to this subject, it was certainly out of the blue. He had previously told me about issues that he was having with them. I don't think that was a big secret. Then he came out and straight up said that he wanted to join our team and in fact he named his price," Dubin told BoxingScene.com.

"There were several phone calls. We weighed it out and strongly considered it. This was something that was discussed over several weeks. It was something that we weighed out, something that he weighed out. But people don't call to leave their team because they feel appreciated and things are going good. They call to leave because things are not going good. I think John knows us well enough to know that when you're with us we treat you right and we respect the skills that you bring in."

Prince indicates that while they seriously considered the possibility of hiring Jackson, they ultimately passed to avoid a post-fight situation where Jackson's hire would overshadow the efforts of Ward and trainer Virgil Hunter. He feels Jackson is being marginalized in his current camp, with Kovalev recently bringing in a Russian conditioning coach.

"The thing is, Kovalev don't really listen to his man in the corner. The fact of the matter is, Jackson would love to be in the corner with the Americans. He wants to be where he's respected. We would show him more respect in our camp," Prince told BoxingScene.com.

"The paint is on the wall. You see the same things that we see. Kovalev is a Russian that wants to be surrounded by his Russian people. Jackson can't even talk in the corner. Imagine being a man who is training you and giving you all of this direction and then when the TV screen comes on, they want to insinuate like somebody else is in charge and gets the credit, so I sympathize with Jackson and his negotiations and his decision on when he wanted to jump camp to be in a stronger position, with the Americans.

"We didn't want Jackson to cause Virgil and Andre and the rest of the team not getting credit [in the rematch]. We thought about it strongly, that's why we were conversating with him because we felt that he could be somewhat of an asset. But at the end of the day it was an asset that we really didn't need. Let him stay over there with the Russians. The American wanted to be in the American corner.

"Then the Russian reached over and grabbed more Russians to be in his corner. At the end of the day, you'll see who is doing the talking, although they may call the man a conditioner or all of these different labels that they are giving him. They will keep Jackson looking as good as they want him to look because they don't want to show that bias to the public."

And of course, Kovalev has been under fire, more than once, over controversial posts on social media that some felt were racial in nature.

"That dude is showing Jackson who he is. Character is what you show when nobody is looking, when the TV is off, when the camera is not rolling. He's showing Jackson who he really is. And I don't think Jackson likes it at all from what I'm told," Prince said.