By Jason Kim: WBA/WBC super middleweight champion Andre Ward (25-0, 13 KO’s) admits to having problems when he first started his training camp for his September 8th fight against Chad Dawson (31-1, 17 KO’s). Ward, 28, was coming off a hand injury to his left hand and hadn’t fought since December when he defeated Carl Froch in the Super Six tournament finals. The long period of inactivity made it difficult for Ward to get back into the swing of things.

Ward told RingTV “Things were horrible, man. I was rusty and my sparring partners were working me every day. I was on the verge of cancelling this fight. I can not be off this long ever again.”

Knock on wood. Hopefully, Ward doesn’t suffer any bad injuries in his career that cause him to miss out on a long period of time because it’s always possible for a fighter to suffer a bad injury at some point that will keep him out of the ring for an extended period of time. Ward fractured his left hand before the Froch fight, and using it in the fight obviously didn’t help matters. He needed to cancel the fight but didn’t want to because he’s already had to postpone the fight once because of a cut he suffered during a sparring session.

Dawson is a tough opponent for Ward to be taking coming off of an injury and a long period away from the ring. Ward is going to have to be dialed in and fighting at the same level he was before the injury if he’s to beat Dawson, because this is the most talented fighter in the light heavyweight division we’re talking about.

However, Dawson is coming down in weight from 175 and it’s highly possible that he’ll be slightly weight drained from taking off all the weight. It’s not going to help him that’s for sure.