By Jim Dower: Unbeaten Andre Ward (18-0, 12 KOs) will have a huge home field advantage on May 16th against Colombian Edison Miranda (32-3, 28 KOs) when he faces him at the Oracle Arena, in Oakland, California. Ward, 25, is making a monumental jump up in competition by choosing the powerful Miranda, 28, to fight. Ranked #w in the WBO #2 in the WBC, Ward hardly needs to face a fighter as dangerous as Miranda.
However, Ward believes in order to be the best you have to fight the best, which is why he’s not taking any shortcuts to a title challenge against the winner of the WBC super middleweight bout between Jermain Taylor and champion Carl Froch. Ward won a Gold Medal for the U.S. in the 2004 Olympics, which ended up being the only Gold Medal victory for the United States team that year.
By taking on a fighter as good as Miranda, Ward should have a pretty good idea where he stands in the division talent wise. Although technically Miranda is a light heavyweight rather than a super middleweight, but it should still give Ward a clearer idea of how good he is. Miranda, however, is still ranked fairly high in the super middleweight division, ranked at #6 in the WBO, #7 in the WBC.
Ward has fought limited opposition since turning pro five years ago with the unproven Henry Buchanan being perhaps Ward’s best opponent during this time. Ward blanked Buchanan recently, defeating him by a lopsided 12-round unanimous decision in February. It’s hard to Ward too much credit for that victory, though, because Buchanan looked like he was just going through the motions and threw very few punches in the fight.
Lack of quality opposition aside, this is probably the best time as any for Ward to move up against better competition because he looks like the finished product at 25, and it’s doubtful he’ll get much better than he already is. If anything, Ward may start slowing down because he appears a very finished fighter.
Miranda, 28, is a fighter in search of a big fight. He seems to be heading in the right direction by moving up to light heavyweight, because the division has very limited talent other than Chad Dawson and a fighter like Miranda could possibly grab a title if he can get a bout with limited title holders Zsolt Erdei, Adrian Diaconu and Hugo Garay.
Miranda has the power and the skills to beat any one of them if he can work his way into a fight with one of them. However, it’s unclear whether Miranda has the chin good enough for the division because he’s already been stopped by middleweights Kelly Pavlik and Arthur Abraham.
Berto Faces Urango on May 30th
Undefeated World Boxing Council welterweight champion Andre Berto (24-0, 19 KOs) will be fighting Colombian Juan Urango (21-1, 16 KOs) on May 30th at the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel and Casino, in Hollywood, Florida. Berto, 25, has looked exciting and terribly flawed in defending the WBC title twice over the likes of Luis Collazo and Steve Forbes.
The WBC, luckily for Berto, isn’t exactly loaded with talent compared to the WBO, WBA and IBF. Other than Collazo, who Berto barely beat by a narrow 12-round decision in January, there’s little opposition for Berto to fight. Urango, 28, is currently ranked #7 in the WBC, has zero experience in the welterweight division and it’s doubtful he’ll be able to do much against the faster and more powerful Berto.
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