By Mark Vester
Super middleweight contender Edison Miranda (32-3, 28KOs) plans to crush the career of undefeated Olympian Andre Ward (18-0, 12KOs) when they clash on May 16 in Oakland, California. The fight is by far the biggest of Ward's career. Ward won a gold medal in the 2004 Olympic games. Showtime will televise the fight live.
Miranda says the fight reminds him of the junior middleweight classic between Felix Trinidad and Fernando Vargas. The fight took place in 2000 and saw an undefeated Vargas take a beating before getting stopped in the twelfth and final round. Some say Vargas was never the same fighter after the beating he took from Trinindad. Miranda promises to give Ward the same kind of beating.
"This fight reminds me of Tito Trinidad and Fernando Vargas. Vargas was a very good young fighter but Trinidad was a murderer at the time. It damaged the career of Fernando Vargas. By having that fight so early [in his career] with Trinidad, Vargas was never the same. I think that is the same mistake being committed against Ward, but putting him in with me," Miranda said to El Nuevo Dia.
Miranda says Ward is the same kind of fighter as Allan Green. Miranda holds a decision win over Green from 2007, and that's still the only loss of Green's career. Based on their styles, I don't think Ward and Green are anything alike.
"Ward is a fighter like Allan Green and I know how to beat that kind of fighter. I think it it's going to be a good fight like the one I had against Green. After five or six rounds I will take full control. It is going to end by knockout in 10 rounds," said Miranda.
Miranda has had some tough losses with Kelly Pavlik and Arthur Abraham. He says this time things are different. He had to kill himself to make weight for those fights. This time his body has stuck around the super middleweight limit and he's been training the entire time in Puerto Rico.
"Every time we had a fight I was going to Colombia and was there for two or three months and sometimes I had problems with my visa, had to stay there. I was weighing 240-pounds. I had six weeks to take off over 70-pounds and that was very difficult for me. That struck me in the fights with Pavlik, and Abraham. I had practically given up everything in the gym trying to lose weight. Now I am a boxer, I was training here and I'm in great condition," Miranda said.
"If I win this fight, in three or four months I should be fighting for a championship and I would like to be registered as one of the champions of Puerto Rico because it is not where one is born, but what your heart feels, and I am Puerto Rican. In all of my fights I have the flag of Puerto Rico and I want to be the 59th champion of this country."
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