On June 28, 2016, Roc Nation Sport confirmed that Ward would fight once more before his mega fight with Kovalev on July 30 against 39 year old Colombian boxer Alexander Brand (25-1, 19 KOs). The fight was to take place in Oakland, California at the Oracle Center. This was the eighth and final time Ward fought in his hometown. Brand entered the fight as a 100-1 underdog. In front of 8,653 hometown fans, Ward unanimously outpointed Brand to claim the vacant WBO International light heavyweight title. All three judges had the fight 120–108 for Ward. Brand, who looked as though he came to survive 12 rounds, didn't initiate any action, which ultimately led him to lose all the rounds on the three scorecards. Ward looked slow in the victory, not looking like the same fighter he was in 2011. Ward dictated the fight however with a strong jab. This showed in round 7 when Brand's right eye suddenly started to swollen up. Ward spoke to HBO in the post fight interview about fighting Kovalev next saying: "I'm excited, I'm looking forward to it. I'll see you in November." This was Ward's third fight in eight months, after only fighting three times from 2012 to 2015. Ward landed 190 of 490 punches thrown (39%), and Brand landed 45 of 285 (16%). Ward earned a purse of $850,000 compared to the small amount of $30,000 earned by Brand. The fight averaged on 742,000 viewers on HBO. The dip could have been due to 21 million tuning in to the Olympics on NBC.