by David P. Greisman

Andre Ward is still undefeated. Adrien Broner is undefeated in fights that don’t take place in the welterweight division.

Both of those statements are true, and yet…

And yet Ward’s ninth-round technical knockout of Paul Smith this past Saturday was only his third fight since he won the “Super Six” super middleweight tournament three and a half years ago, at the end of 2011. It was his first time back in the ring in 19 months.

Broner’s unanimous decision loss to Shawn Porter on a separate card Saturday, meanwhile, was the second time he’s been defeated as a pro. This loss was not as humbling as was the decision he lost to Marcos Maidana at the end of 2013, but it won’t be good for him either unless he learns from it and then recovers from it.

A fighter can right himself by winning, then winning again and again, particularly if he wins at a high level. A boxer who disappears from the sport for a prolonged period of time can return to the public consciousness. A boxer who has lost can work his way back into contention, can earn seven-figure paydays and world title shots, and can retain a fan base even after they’ve seen him at low moments.

Floyd Mayweather Jr. retired in 2008 after his win over Ricky Hatton in 2007 and when negotiations months later for a rematch with Oscar De La Hoya hadn’t reached an agreement. He then came back after a 19-month layoff, beating Juan Manuel Marquez in 2009 and then topping Shane Mosley in 2010. Another sabbatical followed, this one for about 16 months, with Mayweather not stepping back into the ring until September 2011 and a fight with Victor Ortiz.

He remained one of boxing’s two biggest pay-per-view attractions and soon became far and away its biggest box office star.

Manny Pacquiao already had two losses when he debuted in the United States, became an even bigger star after Erik Morales gave him his third defeat, and remained highly popular even after fourth and fifth blemishes were added to his record, one coming in a highly controversial decision loss to Timothy Bradley, the other one the result of a one-punch knockout at the hands of Marquez. Nevertheless, Pacquiao was still able to be one of the two essential parts in the most lucrative boxing match ever held when he fought Mayweather, and lost, this past May.

Canelo Alvarez lost to Mayweather in 2013 and just attracted 31,000 people to see him fight in Houston and drew the largest audience for boxing on HBO by far since 2006. Miguel Cotto has lost four times, all decisively, but continues to succeed in the ring, with ticket sales and with television ratings.

It’s an unfair comparison, yet nevertheless it’s important to say that Ward and Broner are not Mayweather, Pacquiao, Canelo or Cotto.

Ward still may be pound-for-pound one of the most talented boxers in the entire world, as he was at the end of 2011 when he’d outpointed Carl Froch with one good hand and proven himself the class of the 168-pound division. At the time, the next best available opponent was Lucian Bute, a star in Montreal who had not been part of the “Super Six” tournament. Ward didn’t seem interested in Bute, though. Instead, Froch fought and obliterated Bute in May 2012, the first step in rebuilding himself, a path that ultimately had him headlining last year at Wembley Stadium in London for a rematch with George Groves in front of a reported 80,000 people.

Ward’s win over Smith had an announced attendance of 9,016. There was no immediate indication of how many of those tickets were discounted or given away for free. This was in Oakland, Ward’s hometown and where he has fought for six of his last 10 bouts. It was a pretty good crowd for an American boxing match, though far less than what Mayweather, Pacquiao, Canelo and Cotto tend to bring in, as well as less than what Gennady Golovkin has been drawing on both coasts and what Wladimir Klitschko drew to Madison Square Garden in New York City back in April.

Ward’s rise resulted from a style that effectively negated his opponents and often didn’t thrill non-partisan viewers. He doesn’t partake in the kind of trash talk or extracurricular behavior that makes headlines and builds a fighter into an antihero and a villain. He did decent ratings after jumping from Showtime to HBO, pulling in 1.332 million people for the Dawson win in 2012 and then 1.191 for a victory over Edwin Rodriguez in late 2013.

A final rating for his win over Smith this past Saturday was not yet available. It was the first boxing card on BET, though it was also competing with the more widely watched NBC card featuring Broner-Porter and a smaller show on Fox Sports 2 featuring a middleweight title fight between David Lemieux and Hassan N’Dam.

His inactivity came due to injury and from a lengthy attempt to extricate himself from promoter Dan Goossen, who has since passed away. While Ward felt it was the right choice, it came at the cost of his momentum. It’s difficult to build a following when you’re so rarely seen. He could’ve been a bigger star had he been fighting more often and blowing away his competition.

Ward is still 31 and in his physical prime. It remains to be seen whether the layoff was to his detriment. Ward said he was merely rusty in his win over Smith. He still has his name, his status as the true super middleweight champion, and placement alongside Miguel Cotto as one of the two major stars signed with Jay-Z’s Roc Nation Sports. All of that should allow him to be back in a major spotlight soon, whether it’s on BET or HBO, and whether it’s against others at 168 or perhaps up sometime soon at 175.

Except some of the name top super middleweights in the United States may not be available to fight. Some are signed with Al Haymon and are being featured on “Premier Boxing Champions.” Haymon apparently didn’t want one of his fighters, middleweight Peter Quillin, to appear on a card promoted by Jay-Z last year after Roc Nation won a purse bid for the right to promote a Quillin title defense against Matt Korobov. Instead, Quillin dropped his title. We shouldn’t expect Haymon to work with Jay-Z and feed his fighters to Ward.

Froch hasn’t seemed overly interested in coming to an agreement with Ward on a rematch. Others are based in Europe; they likely would need to agree to come to Oakland to face Ward — unless Ward were finally willing to travel out of the country to make a defense.

We may be more likely to see HBO push for Ward to face middleweight power puncher Gennady Golovkin at 168 or for Ward to challenge light heavyweight power puncher Sergey Kovalev.

While Ward is merely fighting to get back into the public consciousness, Broner will need to battle to change the way he is perceived.

Broner has long sought to follow the Mayweather mold, speaking cockily and living ostentatiously, believing that some people will watch to see him win, others will watch hoping he loses, but everyone will watch.

Except Mayweather has always won in the ring.

Broner won world titles at junior lightweight and lightweight at a young age but without ever firmly establishing himself as the best in either 130 or 135. But when many of the top names at 140 were tied up with other fights, Broner jumped directly to welterweight and challenged Paulie Malignaggi for a world title there. Broner won a split decision, though he hadn’t beaten one of the top fighters in the division.

Then came the loss to Maidana. Broner was rocked early, knocked down in the second and eighth rounds, and suffered a devastating loss before he could even become the pay-per-view star he felt he’d be. He left the ring, declining a post-fight interview until a Showtime commentator found him in his dressing room.

Unlike Mayweather, Broner had a habit of adding on significant weight between fights. That may have partially been his undoing against Maidana. He had relied on speed and reflexes in his previous victories. He wasn’t quick enough to move out of the way of Maidana’s awkwardly angled shots.

Broner’s team insisted the weight wasn’t the reason why he lost. Then he moved down to 140.

He seemed in those three fights at junior welterweight as if he were biding his time, staying busy while waiting for a title shot or major opponent. There was the workmanlike win over Carlos Molina on the pay-per-view undercard of the first Mayweather-Maidana fight. There was a win on Showtime over a gritty Emanuel Taylor. And then Broner was featured in an early “PBC on NBC” show, facing John Molina Jr.

Again, Broner didn’t leave fans with much reason to see him again. Plenty of that was due to Molina, who didn’t show his characteristic determination and aggression. Yet Broner seemed content to take the decision and move on to the next guaranteed payday.

That fight didn’t come at 140. Once more, Broner moved up to challenge a welterweight in former titleholder Shawn Porter. Except this time, Broner used his advantage in negotiations to try to get an advantage in the ring. His bigger name meant a bigger payday for Porter, who agreed to drain his stocky frame to a catch-weight of 144 pounds.

It didn’t appear as if Porter was adversely affected, however, even though it was a weight he’d only been at once in his pro career, and even though he’d been an amateur more than 20 pounds north. He still had enough speed to dodge many of Broner’s shots, and he still was able to use his size and pressure to swarm and make Broner uncomfortable.

Broner resorted to holding, and a lot of it, rarely throwing, only sending out 309 shots in 12 rounds, an average of just 26 per round, according to CompuBox. He landed only 88, or a little more than 7 per round. In terms of power shots, he landed 68 of 206, averaging less than 6 landed per round out of about 17 thrown. While Broner was able to knock Porter down with a good, clean shot in the last round, it was far too little and far too late. Porter won the decision. Broner gave a very brief post-fight interview.

“I came to fight today and I didn’t get the decision,” he said at one point. “But at the end of the day, everyone here will take my autograph and my picture.”

He then skipped out on the post-fight press conference. Perhaps he didn’t want to distract from Porter’s victory. More likely he didn’t want to deal with the kind of questions that come up immediately after a loss.

Broner didn’t have the size to handle Porter, but he also didn’t use enough speed, footwork or activity. Some of that is credit to Porter. But Broner also deserves a tremendous share of the blame.

As honorable as it is that he steps up outside of his ideal weight class to take on tough challenges, it’s become clear that Broner didn’t give himself the best chance to win against Maidana and Porter. He tried to take advantage of Porter with the catch-weight, and even that didn’t work.

He’s now 1-2 against welterweight opponents. He’ll likely return to 140 once more, which is where he should be. The issue for him is that a fighter can lose in high-profile fights only so often before he begins to get a reputation for coming up short. He’s not yet at the point where he can get away with it and come back easily. Pacquiao was losing at the highest level and still achieving against top opponents. Canelo is still young, and he and Cotto have the luxury of a tremendously loyal ethnic fan base.

Broner is the boxer who cried wolf, someone who talks a big game but has now twice failed to back up his words.

He will get more chances, of course. He’s still incredibly young — he turns 26 this July — and may someday recognize that his physical gifts aren’t always enough and that he needs to remember the hunger and dedication that brought him the lifestyle with which he’s so fallen in love. He’ll need to learn to focus in the ring and outside of it.

He had big dreams, and this latest loss needs to be his wake-up call.

The 10 Count will return soon.

“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