I know the tears of mine are crocodile ones, but I want to write about the career of Andre Ward in a manner that I think is a different, yet accurate manner than I've been reading from so many today.
Andre Ward was a very effective fighter, won his fights clearly (with one notable exception) and without controversy (add another exception), and made Oakland, California a fight town-even if it was just for him.
I'm going to give Ward some more credit for his decision today on two different points.
The first is that if he didn't have the fire to compete as he says that he currently lacks. then the time is indeed right to leave the game.
If you don't have the spirit to put your effort into training, it'll eventually show up in the ring and that is unfair to the paying customers that watch your fights.
I'm also going to give credit to Ward for not keeping three of the four titles that he held hostage.
We saw Floyd Mayweather do that on quite a few occasions and it isn't fair to boxers in that division or the fans to tolerate such nonsense.
Ward didn't take an excessive amount of time (Just three months) to make this decision so the three sanctioning bodies can begin the process of filling their various championship vacancies.
Full credit for doing the right thing, Andre.
Andre Ward retires undefeated, wealthy, and apparently (and sadly) has an HBO commentating job waiting for him while he awaits his deserved first-ballot entry into boxing's hall of fame.
Now, if you are an Andre Ward supporter to the point of a closed mind-thanks for reading, stop right here and come back again sometime.
Still here?
Good, Let's continue.
Let's talk about Andre Ward and his career and I'll try to fairly analyze his career rather than toss bouquets of roses to him as so many (not all) are writing today...
Andre Ward did win the Super Six tournament and full credit to him for that.
He beat several formidable opponents there and full credit to him again.
However, a closer look at Dan Rafael's "Ode to Andre' shows a few flaws in the theory of Ward taking everyone on-no question asked and it started with the Super Six.
Fight one where Dan Rafael writes of Ward beating the tournament favorite Mikkel Kessler by a clear 11-round technical decision.
I had Ward winning the bout and it was a clear decision (I consider myself a Kessler fan, who history will remember as a very good fighter, not a great one) No argument there.
However, if Kessler was considered the favorite (there were no seedings unlike the current WBSS), why was this bout held in Oakland, the home of the underdog?
Why was the fight stopped in the eleventh? Multiple cuts on Kessler were caused by headbutts by the "Technically Brilliant" Andre Ward.
Fight two was against the standby entry in Allan Green, who replaced the concussed Jermain Taylor.
Hindsight shows that Allan Green, who received lots of hype for a spectacular 18-second KO on ShoBox of Jaidon Codrington (a non-contender), but had lost his only fight vs a top ten fighter (a lame effort in a decision loss to Edison Miranda) and would never defeat a top ten contender in his entire career.
And where would this wonderful bout take place? Oakland, of course.
After Ward's dull but effective decision win over Green, Ward was permitted to fight a non-tournament bout, where he pounded out another less than-thrilling, but sufficient victory over the tough, but limited Sakio Bika.
The site of this snoozer? Oakland once again.
Now keep in mind that the Super Six was regarded to be without seeding, but yet Ward didn't have to fight in the following round because "he had secured a number one position in the opening rounds".
How can you do that, if there were not any seeding?
Ward would next fight Arthur Abraham, who had lost his last two tournament bouts in the semi-final.
This, I cannot blame Ward for as the drawn-out tourney was having health issues with the "Super Six" as Green had been exposed as a pretender, Kessler developed eye issues ( dating back to his "unintentional headbutts" against you guessed it-Andre Ward, watch this video below and you tell me), Andre Dirrell had head trauma from his late hit against Abraham (Some things never change) and Jermain Taylor was long gone, so Ward, Abraham and Carl Froch (Glen Johnson was added to give Froch a semi-final opponent) were all that was left!
BTW-I picked the Danish feed because Gus Johnson did this fight for Showtime-you can thank me later.
Ward would leave Oakland for this fight, but not California as Carson, California was the site as the German-based Abraham traveled thousands of miles with Ward fighting in his home state.
Abraham did buzz Ward late in the fight, but Ward clearly won another lopsided, but less than visually stunning bout and again scored no knockdowns-three for three in victories and bouts without knockdowns.
Ward would win the tournament in his only bout east of the Mississippi River since 2006 with a unanimous decision over Carl Froch in Atlantic City that was a little closer on the cards than I had it, but another less than fun to watch win regardless.
Froch rallied late on my card to make things respectable (116-112), but I never felt Ward was ever in any sort of danger of losing to the Englishman.
The clear facts show that Showtime bent over backward to give Andre Ward advantage after advantage in this tournament and that was due to the shrewdness of Ward's promoter Dan Goossen, who again and again gained concessions that favored his fighter, which is what made Dan Goossen so good at what he did.
Ward's repayment to Goossen? Three unsuccessful lawsuits attempted to break their management contract, so Ward could go to what he thought were greener pastures that he continued to pursue after Goossen's death in 2014 from liver cancer.
Ken Hershman had been a huge believer in Ward from his days as Showtime's boxing king and when Hershman moved to HBO for their version of the same job, he signed Ward to a contract and a fight with WBC light heavyweight champion Chad Dawson.
Usually, it would be the fighter from the lower weight class that rises in weight in a bout between champions, but not this time-it was Dawson dropping in weight-yet another advantage for Andre Ward negotiated by Dan Goossen.
Time would tell that Dawson didn't take a good shot (he would lose his WBC title at 175 in one round to the still-reigning Adonis Stevenson in his next fight), but still, Ward took full advantage of his opponent's weight loss and weak chin to stop him in ten rounds, scoring three knockdowns along the way.
The September 2012 win over Dawson would be Ward's last elite win for over three years as he would fight Goossen in court, injuries (the WBC disagreed on some of those, stripping him of their title), and only one top 10 opponent in Sullivan Barrera among four opponents (Barrera, Edwin Rodriguez, Paul Smith, and the immortal Alexander Brand) until he stepped into the ring against the fearsome Sergey Kovalev in November 2016.
You know the story of this one, where Ward might have won the night after a brave effort after being knocked down in the second round, battling back against the power-punching Kovalev and even the Ward detractors such as myself were giving him applause for a game effort, before the surprising scorecards that surprised even Ward, with the famous look of shock on the face of the "Winner".
Discerning boxing fans will almost always remember this bout as the asterisk on Ward's undefeated record, much as those same fans will mark Floyd Mayweather's first fight with Jose Luis Castillo in the same manner.
Ward then stopped Kovalev in the eighth round in the rematch (which doesn't take away the decision in the first fight) with several questionable tactics including a finishing low blow that referee Tony Weeks would later apologize for not seeing as he labeled Kovalev unable to continue.
I had Kovalev ahead by one round entering the eighth, but the knockdown would have given Ward the lead and the tide did seem to have turned Ward's way, so I think he was on his way to the win anyway, but the finish was satisfactory only to Ward and his fans...
I've written mostly about Ward in the ring here.
I've left aside, for the most part, the inactivity, the lack of interest in fighting quality opponents unless he was given numerous competitive advantages, the reluctance to leave Oakland, the regal behavior, the insistence of being the "A-side" despite a lack of strong pay per view and attendance numbers outside of Oakland and the difficulty of dealing with his demands in attempts to make any type of major fights.
Was Andre Ward a great fighter?
Depends on your definition of such.
Was he effective? Certainly
Did he win his fights? The record book says so.
Did he fight good competition? Yes, but not as good as some would like you to believe, especially when you look past the obvious.
Was he exciting to watch? No
Was he a clean fighter? Sergey Kovalev, Mikkel Kessler. Edwin Rodriguez (who Ward decisioned in a foul-filled fight) would say No and I'd be inclined to agree.
Did he ever put the sport first? I'd say no, although you could say the first Kovalev is as close as he came to that as the second fight was contractually mandated.
All of these things add up to be considered along with the wins and losses and though I think he'll be a deserving addition to the Boxing Hall, I lean towards making him the best of his weight classes generation, but not quite great.
Sometimes greatness is about more than just an undefeated record.
Thanks for reading such a long article and bearing with me.
I have more to come out later tomorrow and I've tossed another post for next week on the growing pile-The Light Heavyweights-Post Ward...
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