Betting Odds have Andre Ward a Clear Favorite to Beat Miranda

By Boxing News - 05/15/2009 - Comments

ward4424By Sam Gregory: Andre Ward will be making his first professional appearance in his hometown of Oakland, California this Saturday night against WBO #6 contender Edison Miranda at the Oracle Arena in Oakland. This fight will be the biggest test so far in the career of the Olympic Gold medalist from California. Undefeated Andre Ward 18-0 with 12 KO’s has been brought along slowly and with care in his 4 ½ year professional career having boxed only 89 rounds so far.

Saturday night Ward will face Edison Miranda 32-3 with 28 KO’s who is known for his devastating right hand but who has struggled of late having lost 2 of his last 6 fights, 3 of his last nine fights. Miranda’s first pro loss was in September of 06’ against the hard hitting German middleweight Arthur Abraham in a 12 round unanimous decision in Abraham’s homeland of Germany. Miranda’s second loss came at the hands of the hard hitting middleweight champion Kelly Pavlik who stopped Miranda in 7 rounds. Miranda’s last defeat once again came at the hands of Arthur Abraham; this time the fight took place in Florida and Abraham stopped Miranda in 4 rounds.

The boxing betting odds have Andre Ward as the solid favorite to win this fight which is a scheduled 12 round fight in the super middleweight division. The over/under is 9 ½ rounds.

Since the day Andre Ward first stepped in a boxing ring he was schooled and developed into a top-flight young prospect with a long amateur career. He was naturally gifted with fast hands, good reflexes and natural fighter instincts and poise. Although Ward doesn’t have the experience of Edison Miranda the point can be made that Ward’s “boxing I.Q.” is on a higher level. Over his long amateur career Ward has developed patients in the ring and learned to box with intelligence; he’s able to switch from southpaw to the orthodox stance with equal effectiveness. Ward is a sharp puncher with very fast hand speed. He has excellent footwork and his athleticism has been compared to that of NBA caliber.

Ward has been susceptible on defense in some of earlier amateur fights and has been dropped hard by average level opponents. This susceptibility is what makes Edison Miranda a “live” underdog in Ward’s biggest fight to date.

Just the fact that Miranda was KOed twice in the last couple years has some people thinking that he is “damaged goods” and an easy win for Ward to accelerate his career. The fact of the matter is that the 28 year old contender had a very accomplished amateur career in his own right; he had 132 fights with 128 wins. Edison Miranda has always been considered a dangerous power puncher with a very affective left jab.

Miranda is a fighter that likes to brawl; he’s best suited when he can use his jab to set-up his power punches. Miranda has an educated defense with decent head movement. His chin has obviously been tested by some of the heavy hitters in the sport but has held up nicely against anything less.

Ward has blown out ordinary competition but he’s never really been tested by anybody better and with more experience like Miranda. This will be Ward’s first big test to see if he can outbox the brawler.



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