By Rick Reeno
Olympic gold medalist Andre Ward showed that he had some whiskers to go with his golden skills when he faced undefeated Kenny Kost (8-0-5K) in his second pro fight at the Palace Indian Gaming Center. Ward got tagged with a big left hook in the final tier of the first round and was visibly hurt by the shot. Ward came on strong for the rest fo the fight to earn the 6 round unanimous decision with scores of 60-54, 59-55 and 59-55. Ward blames overconfidence for being tagged by the big shot.
"I went to sleep in the ring because I looked too good and became too confident. That taught me a lesson, the most valuable thing I learned from this fight. If things don't go right, stick to the game plan. The experience was priceless. A lot of young fighters don't get tested early in their careers. I'm not going home with my head down." said Ward
"I learned how to go six rounds. I can take a punch. I stayed composed. It just caught me in a good shot. It happens. I've taken much harder shots than that.''
Ward put a beating on Kost for the rest of fight, a beating which left Kost's face a mess.
"I'd rather take one good shot than go home looking like that. It's worse than a knockout. It's constant punishment. He got one good shot on me. He'll go away happy.'' said Ward
In the main event, WBC super bantamweight champ Oscar Larios defeated the always tough Wayne McCullough in a 12-round toe to toe battle by way of unanimous decision. McCullough gave as good as he took for many rounds but seemed to run out of gas in the last quarter of the fight. Larios landed some huge shots in the fight but Wayne showed his iron chin and kept coming to make an exciting fight.
