Comments Thread For: Andre Ward Announces His Retirement From Boxing

[Eff Pandas]

Its such a shame that whenever this guy seemed to get the ball rolling for him somehow his career would come to a halt. Just as you could get excited to see what he would do next he'd get injured, end up in court or now just outright retire.

I tried to appreciate Andre Ward, but his career post the Carl Froch win was just frustrating to follow.

No doubt he is a great fighter but I am not a fan.

Honestly this is more or less my feelings about Ward. He's obviously a talented cat who you can't do anything except appreciate for those skills & abilities in the ring, but I'd never call myself a fan of Ward per se all the same. In many ways the high water mark of his career was winning the Super Six tournament vs Froch. At least to me thats when I was biggest on him & was most looking forward to watching him fight.

I think one of the things about Ward was everything seemed like a battle to get him in the ring post the Super Six tournament. How can you give a reluctant warrior THAT much respect? He showed little outward love for the fight game while giving everything to fighting. Its a conflicted approach he had to his professional boxing career that I've seldom had such an opinion about such a high level guy. Idek if that makes sense to anyone but me but thats my take on his career to me.

[Raggamuffin]

As a fan you want to see him fight on, but as a man more power to him. One of the greats of the sport. Happy for him.

[Tatabanya]

If Ward stays retired, I'm picking him as the most intelligent fighter - in the ring and out of the ring - I have seen in my 45 years as a boxing follower. I have never been excited by his style, but he always managed to find a way to win and, it seems, to remain with a healthy brain before it's too late. He goes away having beaten twice - deservedly, IMO - the erstwhile baddest man in the light-heavyweight division; he retires while at the very top. Hats off.

[deanrw]

I wanted to see him fight Stevenson. Good luck.

Floyd, Ward and Bhop HOF class of 2022. Amazing class.

Also Wlad. 4 giant names of the past decade+

[Eff Pandas]

No, man... nobody really wants to pay and watch him fight... Ward isn't a trash talker either... He's only for pundits...

LOL at the pundits line.

Look I'm not saying he will do this or that or I expect him to fight again or make some 8 digit payday in the future, but you are being naive if you can't see a road to him getting some career high payday at some future date if he choose to take advantage of the common theme of fighters getting more respect once they are gone or yet unforeseen opportunities presenting themselves.

Boxing is nuts like that. A guy just got the 3rd or 4th biggest payday in boxing history in his f#cking pro debut last month. Who the f#ck woulda predicted that sh^t 2 years ago?

[Gentblue]

Sooo does this mean Jack is going too fight Bivol for the WBA strap or Jack is the true champ now and Beterbiev is going for the IBF now?

[skinnystev]

what really sealed his fate were the beatings he took in his two "wins" over kovalev

[davidw9785]

haha, i think my ward avatar throws people off.


i'm a genuinely unbiased poster. or as unbiased as a person can be, i guess.


i thought ward should have had points taken and that kovalev should have had time to recover on several occasions. i can't see how any sane individual would argue with that. he's not evander holyfield, but he's without a doubt boxing's most prolific headbutter on the p4p level. probably the biggest head butter at the p4p level since hopkins. maybe i'm forgetting somebody, but i doubt it!

OK cool, thanks for the reply. I wasn't sure which way your were going. That's more or less how I feel.

[New England]

I remember that about 5 years ago you were rooting for Ward...

i still root for ward. i dn't go to las vegas to see sergey kovalev

being a fan of a fighter is not enough to get me to sacrifice my objectivity.

[TyrantT316]

I don't think Ward would come back just for money and fame. He seems like someone, with his faith, that would stay away for real, take care of his money and not want to risk long term damage when he's able to retire young and enjoy the fruits of labor with his wife and family.