Ward vs. Miranda This Saturday Night

By Boxing News - 05/14/2009 - Comments

By Matt Stein: Unbeaten super middleweight contender Andre Ward (18-0, 12 KOs) faces the tough task of fighting the hard-hitting Colombian Edison Miranda (32-3, 28 KOs) on Saturday night at the Oracle Arena, in Oakland, California. Miranda, 28, will be effectively serving the purpose of acting as gatekeeper for the 25-year-old Ward, who needs to get by Miranda if he wants to get a shot against World Boxing Council super middleweight champion Carl Froch in the future.

Ward, a 2004 Olympic Gold Medalist for the U.S., has to find a way to avoid getting hit with Miranda’s big shots, because although Edison doesn’t have nearly the same boxing skills and overall talent that Ward appears to possess, Miranda has the much better power and can end things with one big punch. Ward, a southpaw, has the advantage of coming into this fight without any defeats on his record.

However, that doesn’t really mean all that much, because most of Ward’s opponents have been mediocre and not nearly on the same level as Miranda and some of his opponents. So experience wise, Ward is the much greener fighter and it’s a mystery how he’ll stand up to the bigger shots thrown by Ward.

But then again, Miranda has been beaten three times out of his last nine fights, losing twice to Arthur Abraham and once to Kelly Pavlik. Miranda isn’t beaten just by anyone, though, and he’s plenty tough against fighters that don’t have the power or the chin to hold up against his big shots.

Miranda broke Abraham’s jaw in two separate places in their controversial 12-round bout in 2006, which Miranda lost after having five points deducted from him. Miranda was weight drained in his rematch with Abraham in June 2008, losing by a 4th round TKO after having to strip down from 223 pounds in a matter of weeks to make thee 166 pound catch weight.

In the fight against Pavlik, Miranda was unable to stand and trade shots with Pavlik and was taken out in the 7th round. However, Miranda landed some really tremendous shots before eventually being taken out by Pavlik. In fights against good B level opponents, Miranda was too much for David Banks and Willie Gibbs, blowing them both out early with knockouts.

In one of Miranda’s best fights of his career, he defeated super middleweight contender Allan Green in an easy 10-round unanimous decision in March 2007, knocking Green down twice in the 10th. When Miranda is facing a non-puncher, he generally excels and is able to knock his opponent out.

This is why it’s important that Ward try to find some power somewhere so that he can get Green out as quickly as he can. Ward can’t afford to let Miranda stay in the fight for too long, because the longer the fight goes, the more likely that Miranda catches Ward with a big shot and takes him out.

Ward has taken out seven of his last eight opponents going into Saturday night’s bout with Miranda, but the seven fighters that Ward has defeated by knockout weren’t in the class of Miranda. Perhaps a more accurate picture of Ward’s true power is his 12-round decision over Henry Buchanan in his last fight in February.

Ward is going to have to do better than that if he wants to get by Miranda, because it will give the Colombian too many chances to catch him with something and take him out. Having better talent is nice, but power is a great equalizer.



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