by David P. Greisman
Andre Ward has been seen as one of the best fighters in the world for several years.
Ward has barely been seen in the past several years.
That much has been said before, said again and then said even more. He beat the best super middleweight around in 2009 when he won a decision over Mikkel Kessler in the opening round of the “Super Six” tournament. He cemented his status as the top 168-pounder by picking up four more victories in the tournament, including a decision over Carl Froch in the finale.
That was the end of 2011. He’s fought three times in the four years since.
That trend should change in 2016.
Ward will fight light heavyweight Sullivan Barrera this coming Saturday in the main event on HBO. If he wins, then he will likely appear at least once more this year — and against a far more formidable foe.
This weekend’s fight will show a couple of things: how Ward looks at 175 pounds; how Ward looks against an undefeated 175-pound contender; and how Ward might look against Sergey Kovalev. That’s really the purpose of the show: to bring Ward back in front of boxing fans and to build toward the fight with Kovalev.
And it is the Kovalev fight that will let us know whether Ward is still one of the best in the world.
Barrera is serviceable but unproven. He is trained by Abel Sanchez, who most famously these days works with Gennady Golovkin, yet that prestige doesn’t guarantee that Barrera will have the pedigree. Barrera is taking a significant step up in level of competition. He would be taking a significant step up even if he weren’t facing someone like Ward. Fourteen months ago he was in with the shell of long-ago former 168-pound titleholder Jeff Lacy. This past December he stopped Karo Murat, the fringe contender whom Bernard Hopkins easily defeated in 2013.
If Ward fights how we think he can still fight, then he’ll beat Barrera.
If Ward fights how we think he can still fight, then he will present a difficult challenge for Kovalev.
We just don’t know. It’s easy to say that Ward has been seen as one of the best in the world. But it’s hard to know whether he still is one of the best without seeing him in the ring, never mind seeing him in the ring with opponents who’d provide a better measure of what Ward can do.
He looked great dismantling Chad Dawson in September 2012, even with the caveat that Dawson, then the light heavyweight champion, had boiled his frame down to super middleweight to face Ward. He topped undefeated prospect Edwin Rodriguez in November 2013. And he returned from extended inactivity last June with a technical knockout of Paul Smith, a limited super middleweight who had twice challenged for world titles at 168 and then came in remarkably overweight against Ward.
That’s all we’ve seen. Ward has been sidelined by injuries and by his own choices, particularly as he sought to extricate himself from promoter Dan Goossen. After Goossen passed away, Ward was able to leave and sign with Roc Nation Sports.
Ward was just 25 when he beat Kessler. He was 27 when he defeated Froch and 28 when he dominated Dawson. He is 32 now, still in his prime but with many of those prime years behind him.
True greatness is demonstrated through consistency. Ward deserved recognition as one of the best given the way he fought from 2009 through 2012. He cleared out the super middleweight division, assisted by Froch’s drubbing of Lucian Bute after the “Super Six” ended. He didn’t remain active against other rising contenders and aspiring prospects, however.
Time at the top can be fleeting. A year ago, Hekkie Budler was the best at 105 pounds. Last weekend, he lost a surprising decision to Byron Rojas. A year ago, Shinsuke Yamanaka was the best bantamweight in the world and was rising higher in observers’ lists of the top boxers in the sport. Then he struggled to a victory over Anselmo Moreno. And then he had to come off the canvas twice to defeat Liborio Solis. He’s still undefeated, but his chances of remaining that way are now more uncertain.
Inactivity can be bad for some fighters, good for others. The body continues to age and slow down. Injuries that have accumulated over the years can worsen. Athletes whose success is predicated on their abilities and reflexes can suffer from atrophied skills thanks to time away from top competition and sparring. Then again, the body can recover while away from the grind of training and the eroding effects of being hit.
Ward continued to train during his dispute with Goossen even though he wasn’t fighting. He did have surgery in early 2013 after a right shoulder injury; there haven’t been any lingering symptoms visible to us since. He did have to pull out of a bout last November due to swelling and pain in his knee, though his trainer said that came from pushing himself too hard and too soon on distance runs, according to the Los Angeles Times.
He hasn’t taken much punishment in the ring. And he may very well be strengthened by moving up to light heavyweight, where he won Olympic gold as an amateur before going down to middleweight and then super middleweight as a pro.
And so we look forward to Ward against Kovalev — to one boxer who hasn’t demonstrated why he is one of the best in a long time facing a bruiser who demonstrated himself as one of the best in a short span. It is Kovalev who has three world titles at light heavyweight, Kovalev who became the first person to shut out Bernard Hopkins (notable even against the nearly 50-year-old version of Hopkins), and Kovalev whose power and underrated technique have made him an impressive force.
But there still isn’t a fight between Kovalev and 175-pound champion Adonis Stevenson — thanks to an inability of both boxers’ teams to put aside political maneuvering and reach an agreement.
In lieu of a fight with Stevenson, it is Ward whose intelligence and ability presents the potential test we’ve wanted to see Kovalev in against.
“Potential” is the key term. When it comes to Andre “S.O.G.” Ward, we’re basing that on who he was in the past. His return needs to be convincing.
That’s fitting for a boxer whose nickname is short for “Son of God.” If he is still great, then a win over Kovalev would mark his second coming. We won’t know until then. In this case, seeing is more than believing.
“Fighting Words” appears every Monday on BoxingScene.com. Pick up a copy of David’s book, “Fighting Words: The Heart and Heartbreak of Boxing,” at http://bit.ly/fightingwordsamazon or internationally at http://bit.ly/fightingwordsworldwide. Send questions/comments via email at fightingwords1@gmail.com
