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BOXING’S ‘SON OF GOD’ ANDRE WARD ON CHAD DAWSON AND ANDRE DIRRELL
BEFORE a recent humbling defeat at the fists – and head – of Jean Pascal, former WBC and IBF light-heavyweight champion “Bad” Chad Dawson was making positive noises about a future superfight with Super Six leader Andre Ward. California’s WBA super-middleweight champion has little sympathy with Dawson and the loss of his unbeaten record.
“It was a good fight, I just felt like Pascal did what he had to do to win,” Ward summarised. “He seemed to be more mentally and physically prepared. Even when Chad would get hit he didn’t seem like mentally he could make the adustment, a, and b, mentally that he even cared. It was just a very lacklustre performance. Hat’s off to Pascal, he’s the Ring magazine light-heavyweight champion.
"I think the doctors made a good call with the cut – the blood was running profusely in his eyes and there’s no way they could have got that cut stopped in a one-minute break between rounds.
"Dawson’s personal life – there’ been some articles out [regarding rifts with his father and his manager James Prince] – and that probably had a lot to do with it but it’s the fighter’s fault if they go in there not mentally prepared. I think the personal things he’s going through all caught up with him.”
Ward’s own future centres around the Super Six tournament, something which has been thrown into upheavel by Mikkel Kessler’s withdrawal from the competition days after Andre and I spoke. “S.O.G” is scheduled to face friend and former amateur team-mate Andre Dirrell next, although he has already qualified for the semi-finals, but that contest in proving hard to put together and it looks likely to be put back from its September 25 date.
“My promoter knows how much time I need to be at my best and he’s assured me I’ll get that time-frame,” Ward revealed. “I’m always training. I never want to be in great shape before I go to camp because that’s not the best thing to do. I like to stay within a certain range – I like to be about four weeks away from being in tip-top shape before I go to camp. I think it’s very unprofessional to blow up, and get 20-30lbs overweight, not train and expect to get it all back in an eight-10-week camp. We stay within some kind of range.
“It’s going to be a good fight because styles make fights and we mirror each other in terms of skill, speed and that could make for a highly-skilled fight. As of late, people and announcers get excited about wars and people bleeding and getting busted up but you have to respect a skilful boxer who’s a master of his craft as well and that’s what I’m trying to become, what I strive to be. I respect all fighters but I look to fighters like Floyd Mayweather, Bernard Hopkins, Juan Manuel Marquez – tacticians, guys who get the job done with the least amount of effort but very efficiently and take the least amount of punishment. Even if Dirrell and I fight that kind of fight it should still be respected and revered.”
While Kessler-Allan Green is now off, Ward is still looking forward to the other third-round tie between Carl Froch and Arthur Abraham, though finds it impossible to pick a winner.
“That’s 50-50,” Ward said. “I could see Froch – he has more boxing skills and does a few other things – but he said it, at some point he’s going to stand and trade and when that happens it’s a flip of a coin. Abraham’s saying he’s going to come out faster – I can’t see that. I think he’ll be the same old Arthur Abraham: tight guard, waiting, waiting, waiting, looking for one shot.”
source:http://www.boxingnewsonline.net/BN08/detail.asp?id=1942
BEFORE a recent humbling defeat at the fists – and head – of Jean Pascal, former WBC and IBF light-heavyweight champion “Bad” Chad Dawson was making positive noises about a future superfight with Super Six leader Andre Ward. California’s WBA super-middleweight champion has little sympathy with Dawson and the loss of his unbeaten record.
“It was a good fight, I just felt like Pascal did what he had to do to win,” Ward summarised. “He seemed to be more mentally and physically prepared. Even when Chad would get hit he didn’t seem like mentally he could make the adustment, a, and b, mentally that he even cared. It was just a very lacklustre performance. Hat’s off to Pascal, he’s the Ring magazine light-heavyweight champion.
"I think the doctors made a good call with the cut – the blood was running profusely in his eyes and there’s no way they could have got that cut stopped in a one-minute break between rounds.
"Dawson’s personal life – there’ been some articles out [regarding rifts with his father and his manager James Prince] – and that probably had a lot to do with it but it’s the fighter’s fault if they go in there not mentally prepared. I think the personal things he’s going through all caught up with him.”
Ward’s own future centres around the Super Six tournament, something which has been thrown into upheavel by Mikkel Kessler’s withdrawal from the competition days after Andre and I spoke. “S.O.G” is scheduled to face friend and former amateur team-mate Andre Dirrell next, although he has already qualified for the semi-finals, but that contest in proving hard to put together and it looks likely to be put back from its September 25 date.
“My promoter knows how much time I need to be at my best and he’s assured me I’ll get that time-frame,” Ward revealed. “I’m always training. I never want to be in great shape before I go to camp because that’s not the best thing to do. I like to stay within a certain range – I like to be about four weeks away from being in tip-top shape before I go to camp. I think it’s very unprofessional to blow up, and get 20-30lbs overweight, not train and expect to get it all back in an eight-10-week camp. We stay within some kind of range.
“It’s going to be a good fight because styles make fights and we mirror each other in terms of skill, speed and that could make for a highly-skilled fight. As of late, people and announcers get excited about wars and people bleeding and getting busted up but you have to respect a skilful boxer who’s a master of his craft as well and that’s what I’m trying to become, what I strive to be. I respect all fighters but I look to fighters like Floyd Mayweather, Bernard Hopkins, Juan Manuel Marquez – tacticians, guys who get the job done with the least amount of effort but very efficiently and take the least amount of punishment. Even if Dirrell and I fight that kind of fight it should still be respected and revered.”
While Kessler-Allan Green is now off, Ward is still looking forward to the other third-round tie between Carl Froch and Arthur Abraham, though finds it impossible to pick a winner.
“That’s 50-50,” Ward said. “I could see Froch – he has more boxing skills and does a few other things – but he said it, at some point he’s going to stand and trade and when that happens it’s a flip of a coin. Abraham’s saying he’s going to come out faster – I can’t see that. I think he’ll be the same old Arthur Abraham: tight guard, waiting, waiting, waiting, looking for one shot.”
source:http://www.boxingnewsonline.net/BN08/detail.asp?id=1942
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