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By Thomas Gerbasi - “Respect the game, and the game will respect you.”
Those words, spoken to WBA super middleweight champion Andre Ward by a veteran fighter whose days had long passed him by, were the kind that stick to your brain and never leave. And when they come from someone who has walked in the shoes you’re currently wearing, they carry even more weight.
So Ward has respected the game of boxing. He trains hard, he takes no one lightly, and when he steps between the ropes, he’s well aware that it may be the last time he does so. The last part is a formality, something you know in your head and in your heart, but that you don’t really address. I’ll leave when I say it’s time to leave, you tell yourself. Being forced out of the game? That won’t happen to me.
Until it does, or until it hits close to home and you’re forced to revisit your mortality. This Saturday night, Ward will approach the four steps he has walked up 22 times as a professional, and make his 23rd trip into the ring to defend his title against Sakio Bika. He should have been fighting his teammate on the 2004 United States Olympic team, Andre Dirrell, in the latest installment of the Super Six 168-pound tournament, but in early October, Dirrell withdrew from the tournament, citing neurological issues stemming from his disqualification win over Arthur Abraham in March. [Click Here To Read More]
Those words, spoken to WBA super middleweight champion Andre Ward by a veteran fighter whose days had long passed him by, were the kind that stick to your brain and never leave. And when they come from someone who has walked in the shoes you’re currently wearing, they carry even more weight.
So Ward has respected the game of boxing. He trains hard, he takes no one lightly, and when he steps between the ropes, he’s well aware that it may be the last time he does so. The last part is a formality, something you know in your head and in your heart, but that you don’t really address. I’ll leave when I say it’s time to leave, you tell yourself. Being forced out of the game? That won’t happen to me.
Until it does, or until it hits close to home and you’re forced to revisit your mortality. This Saturday night, Ward will approach the four steps he has walked up 22 times as a professional, and make his 23rd trip into the ring to defend his title against Sakio Bika. He should have been fighting his teammate on the 2004 United States Olympic team, Andre Dirrell, in the latest installment of the Super Six 168-pound tournament, but in early October, Dirrell withdrew from the tournament, citing neurological issues stemming from his disqualification win over Arthur Abraham in March. [Click Here To Read More]
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