Andre Ward beats Carl Froch and Mikkell Kessler again. I don't believe Froch can handle Ward's speed. Froch is slick, but he just isn't athletic enough to compete with Ward. Kessler is a great basic fighter. Ward has too many wrinkles up his sleeve for Kessler. The more intriguing match ups for Ward are against Bute and Andre Dirrell because the speed gap and the craftiness gap aren't as wide. If Ward wanted to go for gold and legacy, the next fight would be Bute so he could end any conversation about who is the best at 168. Instead, in his own words, "So I don't have to go to Lucian Bute right now" and "This is a sport, but we also use our brains for business, and we'll sit down and make a solid business decision." Andre Ward-Lucian Bute bout looks unlikely for time being - ESPN

The other route would be to face his mandatory, Anthony Dirrell, and build a story for an end of 2012 fight with Andre Dirrell assuming Andre looks good on 12/30.