Andre Ward is an important puzzle piece in boxing

By Boxing News - 01/30/2015 - Comments

ward63545By Shaun La: WBA super middleweight champion Andre Ward supports a 27-0 (14 knockouts) professional boxing record inside of a sport that has the politics to keep boxers away from meeting their best opposition, because you need to sign-up for a promoter’s team in order to play this sport against who a promoter has in his stable.

The intriguing elements that goes with Ward’s natural boxing abilities, strong mentality, respectfulness that he shows with challenging his opponents with direct messages, instead of trash talking can seem a bit calm for a modern boxer.

A lot of boxing fans who only order the big pay-per-view fight-cards might not be aware of Ward, but the hardcore boxing fans have been keeping an eye and ear on his progress ever since he achieved winning the Gold medal inside of the light-heavyweight division for the United States at the 2004 Olympics in Athens, Greece.

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There is this throwback fighting style that Ward donates to the sport of boxing. Even in the super-middleweight division, as he kicked off his professional boxing career with an active amount of bouts, the accolades that the hard core fans in the boxing community showed towards Ward has always been a salute to his potential.

We watched him show up in bouts that was not pay-per-view hyped; nevertheless, he was pitted against boxers who were dominant contenders and honorable former champions. The way that Ward was able to negate Edison Miranda’s power by boxing him is what any boxing fan or trainer would enjoy watching over and over again. Those same boxing skills became fortunate game plans that was constructed to defeat very professional boxers with good boxing records such as Mikkel Kessler, Allan Green, Carl Froch, Arthur Abraham and Chad Dawson—all of these opponents are a definition to not only how smart of a boxer that Ward has evolved into, but an open display into the chemistry that he shares with his trainer, Virgil Hunter.

Ward and Hunter are a collective effort that understands boxing being a union formed thru training and an individual (the boxer) representing that a prepared game plan in the ring can be a sweet science, when it is effective.

But the inactivity that surrounds Ward has made his name appear in the “awaiting to see his full potential category”. To be fair, Ward has met the politics that can come with the business of boxing, along with recovering from injuries. These are issues that can be overlooked just like his undefeated record. Being that Ward is often quiet and soft-spoken, even when he is doing insightful ring side commentary for HBO, the spotlight can often miss covering his contributions to boxing; furthermore, boxing is a sport that always favored the shock-value antics that can come from loud-mouthed bragging boxers who can blame their behavior on being an entertainer.

What is optimistic about Ward’s future is that he signed a brand new promotional deal with the sporting department in Roc-Nation. Therefore opponents such as Julio Cesar Chavez Jr., Andre Dirrell, Felix Sturm, George Groves—they could become strong boxing opposition for Ward in the future, even if Ward is picked as a favorite to win by the general boxing public, the point that meaningful bouts could continue to show us Ward’s progression is interesting enough to believe in the super-middleweight division. The excitement that rises from the wonder about Ward excelling up into the light-heavyweight division to experience boxing fellow undefeated boxer, Sergey Kovalev, Adonis Stevenson, Jean Pascal are bouts that would make any hardcore boxing fan take the time out of a Saturday evening to watch it live. Then there is the gem of a wish that if undefeated middleweight boxer Gennady Golovkin decides to try his skills at super-middleweight, Ward would be the consummate candidate to meet Golovkin in the boxing ring.

These are future bouts for Ward that has made the hardcore boxing fan find a platform of frustration with his inactivity. Yes, he has palpable reasons not to be inside of the ring, because nobody would encourage Ward to box with injuries or to enter into a ring without being paid properly, but when you miss his talent, you can become selfish with a deaf ear to the reasons why he is not in the boxing ring. Every time that we see a Gennady Golovkin in an energetic middleweight bout or Pascal, Stevenson and Kovalev in a light-heavyweight bout, we automatically assume Ward to be a test to their championships—even though he is a super-middleweight proven champion, sandwiched in-between the boiling with talent middleweight division and the packed with good boxers light-heavyweight division, which is often overlooked by the mainstream sport news scope.

Bernard Hopkins once made an indication clear that he had no ambitions in wanting to box Ward. The future Hall of Famer Bernard Hopkins did not indicate this position out of fear, but out of one veteran champion seeing the providence within the future of a fellow champion named Andre Ward. Let us hope that we get to see more of Ward boxing in 2015, because boxing needs the kind of boxing that he gives, without the huge hype or the pay-per-view numbers being the reason for even looking at a contract. He shows up to box like a professional and he wins.



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