By Mark Vester
At the Oracle Arena in Oakland, California, 2004 Olympic gold medal winner Andre Ward (19-0, 12KOs) picked up the biggest win his career with a dominating twelve round unanimous decision over dangerous puncher Edison Miranda (32-4, 28KOs). Ward makes a big statement and puts the super middleweight division on notice. The scores were 116-112, 119-109, 119-109 for Ward.
Ward came out in the first and went right in the face of Miranda. A clash of heads in the first minute opened up a bad cut above the left eye of Ward. Ward began to circle, move and landing some heavy shots that Miranda took well. The blood was streaming down Ward's face by the end of the round. Miranda did his best to rough Ward up in the second. Ward continued to circle and lands some quick hard punches that Miranda shook off.
At the start of the third, Ward began to target Miranda's body and mixed up his punches. The blood stopped flowing from Ward's cut and he began to box smart. He was landing shots almost at will on Miranda and shook him with a left at the end of the round. Ward continued to outbox Miranda during the fourth round action. He made Miranda miss just about everything and countered most punches.
Ward was busting Miranda up in the fifth. He shook Miranda bad with a left uppercut and then buckled his legs with some combinations. Miranda did better in the sixth after landing some hard punches in the final minute but not enough to win the round. Miranda began to go for it more in the seventh, coming forward and switching up his combinations to the head and body. Ward kept his guard up tight and fought back with quick punches to push Miranda back to the ropes.
It was more of an inside fight in the eight, with Ward getting the better of the exchanges and landing hard punches to the body. Ward appeared to slow down a bit in the ninth but not enough to allow Miranda to gain any ground. He rallied at the final thirty seconds and had Miranda in trouble.
Miranda made a mistake of walking forward with his hands too low in the tenth, and was getting drilled with big punches as he walked in the pocket. The eleventh was an easy round for Ward, who took his time by measuring Miranda with hard punches for the full three minutes. During the twelfth and final round, Miranda tried his best to turn the tide. Ward would not allow him to get off and used his legs to work the clock while landing combinations while moving back.
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