VIRGIL HUNTER DISCUSSES ANDRE WARD'S SPARRING INJURY
By Doveed Linder
In this interview, WBA super middleweight champion Andre Ward’s trainer, Virgil Hunter, discusses what happened the day Ward suffered a cut in sparring, which lead to the postponement of his fight against WBC champion Carl Froch in the finals of the Super Six World Boxing Classic. He also talks about recent remarks made by Froch, the possibility of a Ward-Bute fight, and his thoughts on Mayweather-Ortiz, Pacquiao-Marquez, Hopkins-Dawson, and Cotto-Margarito.
DL: How exactly did Andre Ward get cut? What took place in the gym?
VH: It was just a freak accident. I didn’t see a punch or anything. He had his face guard on and the whole bit. It’s really unbelievable and mind boggling how he sustained that cut. It’s nothing that I can identify, where I can say this situation here is probably how he got cut. It’s not something I can put my finger on, so I just let it go. I just have no clue.
DL: So he’s sparring and at one point you just realized that he was cut?
VH: His sparring partner saw it first. He’s sparring and the next thing you know, Brandon (the sparring partner) said, “Dre, you're bleeding.” And when he came back to the corner, I saw blood on the bridge of his nose. And my first reaction was, “How in the heck did you get a scratch on the bridge of your nose?” because he was wearing the face guard. And then as he got closer, I saw blood in other places and then I saw the cut and I wasn’t expecting to see that. So that’s pretty much all I can tell you.
DL: Is the plan now to break from camp and rest until it’s time to get ready for the later date?
VH: We have a routine that we have that calls for rest AND activity. So we’re going to stick to our routine and then we’ll ease back to where we were at the appropriate time, whenever they come up with the new date.
DL: Carl Froch has gone on record that he is dissatisfied with the situation. He puts the blame on Andre. What are your thoughts on some of these remarks?
VH: I’m not surprised at his response, but I’m kind of disappointed because he’s displaying an abundance of amnesia. If you go to his fight with Arthur Abraham, he stalled Abraham for months. Five days before the fight, he came up with a back injury that was never verified that put the fight back two months. He came up with a back injury AND a chest cold. And his statement was, “I’ve done some things in the past, but in a fight like this I would be foolish to fight in this condition.” So it sounds pretty foolish for him to comment like that (on Andre’s cut), but that’s who he is, that’s what he’s about, and you just take it for who he is. But he needs to remember his situation with Abraham.
DL: What is your assessment of Carl Froch as a fighter? What makes him effective and what holes do you see in his game?
VH: He’s been effective against guys who are shorter than him, guys he has a reach on. But guys who have boxing ability, I’ve seen him lose to them. They gave him the [victory by split decision] against [Andre] Dirrell, but Dirrell [deserved to] beat him. And Mikkel Kessler beat him. They gave him the Dirrell fight, because they were in Nottingham [Froch's hometown]. So really, he’s 2-2 in the tournament [Editor's note: Officially, Froch is 3-1 in the Super Six. He beat Andre Dirrell and Arthur Abraham, lost to Mikkel Kessler and beat Glen Johnson in the semi-finals. Except for Abraham, which was a clear victory for Froch, all the other fights were close]. So what do you look for? I see a guy who boxes shorter guys and I see he has problems with boxing ability and speed. So somewhere along the line, we find our niche.
DL: Provided you win the Super Six, are you looking at a fight with Lucian Bute if Bute beats Glen Johnson?
VH: Not necessarily. Showtime promised Mikkel Kessler a fight with the Super Six winner. I think Bute should really beat a Carl Froch or an Andre Dirrell, because it would make the fight more interesting [Editor's note: Dirrell has not fought since defeating Abraham and has health concerns]. He should either fight the guy who loses in the finals or he should fight a guy who is Super Six caliber. I don’t think he should get rewarded with the Super Six winner and just hop, skip and jump over high end competition. Kessler is the [WBC] champion emeritus and Showtime promised him the fight. And we intend to keep that obligation if we win. For two reasons… Number one, it’s the obligation. And number two, we’re not pleased with him using the excuses that he’s used on why he lost to us. So we want to give him an opportunity to prove that the fight was a fluke. We want him to really be there this time, so there are no more excuses. He’s lived off of excuses for two years now. [Editor's note: Kessler was defeated by a wide points margin by Ward but complained about head butts]. We want to give him the opportunity to prove that that wasn’t the real Mikkel Kessler. If that wasn’t the real Mikkel Kessler, then we want to beat the real one.
By Doveed Linder
In this interview, WBA super middleweight champion Andre Ward’s trainer, Virgil Hunter, discusses what happened the day Ward suffered a cut in sparring, which lead to the postponement of his fight against WBC champion Carl Froch in the finals of the Super Six World Boxing Classic. He also talks about recent remarks made by Froch, the possibility of a Ward-Bute fight, and his thoughts on Mayweather-Ortiz, Pacquiao-Marquez, Hopkins-Dawson, and Cotto-Margarito.
DL: How exactly did Andre Ward get cut? What took place in the gym?
VH: It was just a freak accident. I didn’t see a punch or anything. He had his face guard on and the whole bit. It’s really unbelievable and mind boggling how he sustained that cut. It’s nothing that I can identify, where I can say this situation here is probably how he got cut. It’s not something I can put my finger on, so I just let it go. I just have no clue.
DL: So he’s sparring and at one point you just realized that he was cut?
VH: His sparring partner saw it first. He’s sparring and the next thing you know, Brandon (the sparring partner) said, “Dre, you're bleeding.” And when he came back to the corner, I saw blood on the bridge of his nose. And my first reaction was, “How in the heck did you get a scratch on the bridge of your nose?” because he was wearing the face guard. And then as he got closer, I saw blood in other places and then I saw the cut and I wasn’t expecting to see that. So that’s pretty much all I can tell you.
DL: Is the plan now to break from camp and rest until it’s time to get ready for the later date?
VH: We have a routine that we have that calls for rest AND activity. So we’re going to stick to our routine and then we’ll ease back to where we were at the appropriate time, whenever they come up with the new date.
DL: Carl Froch has gone on record that he is dissatisfied with the situation. He puts the blame on Andre. What are your thoughts on some of these remarks?
VH: I’m not surprised at his response, but I’m kind of disappointed because he’s displaying an abundance of amnesia. If you go to his fight with Arthur Abraham, he stalled Abraham for months. Five days before the fight, he came up with a back injury that was never verified that put the fight back two months. He came up with a back injury AND a chest cold. And his statement was, “I’ve done some things in the past, but in a fight like this I would be foolish to fight in this condition.” So it sounds pretty foolish for him to comment like that (on Andre’s cut), but that’s who he is, that’s what he’s about, and you just take it for who he is. But he needs to remember his situation with Abraham.
DL: What is your assessment of Carl Froch as a fighter? What makes him effective and what holes do you see in his game?
VH: He’s been effective against guys who are shorter than him, guys he has a reach on. But guys who have boxing ability, I’ve seen him lose to them. They gave him the [victory by split decision] against [Andre] Dirrell, but Dirrell [deserved to] beat him. And Mikkel Kessler beat him. They gave him the Dirrell fight, because they were in Nottingham [Froch's hometown]. So really, he’s 2-2 in the tournament [Editor's note: Officially, Froch is 3-1 in the Super Six. He beat Andre Dirrell and Arthur Abraham, lost to Mikkel Kessler and beat Glen Johnson in the semi-finals. Except for Abraham, which was a clear victory for Froch, all the other fights were close]. So what do you look for? I see a guy who boxes shorter guys and I see he has problems with boxing ability and speed. So somewhere along the line, we find our niche.
DL: Provided you win the Super Six, are you looking at a fight with Lucian Bute if Bute beats Glen Johnson?
VH: Not necessarily. Showtime promised Mikkel Kessler a fight with the Super Six winner. I think Bute should really beat a Carl Froch or an Andre Dirrell, because it would make the fight more interesting [Editor's note: Dirrell has not fought since defeating Abraham and has health concerns]. He should either fight the guy who loses in the finals or he should fight a guy who is Super Six caliber. I don’t think he should get rewarded with the Super Six winner and just hop, skip and jump over high end competition. Kessler is the [WBC] champion emeritus and Showtime promised him the fight. And we intend to keep that obligation if we win. For two reasons… Number one, it’s the obligation. And number two, we’re not pleased with him using the excuses that he’s used on why he lost to us. So we want to give him an opportunity to prove that the fight was a fluke. We want him to really be there this time, so there are no more excuses. He’s lived off of excuses for two years now. [Editor's note: Kessler was defeated by a wide points margin by Ward but complained about head butts]. We want to give him the opportunity to prove that that wasn’t the real Mikkel Kessler. If that wasn’t the real Mikkel Kessler, then we want to beat the real one.
Comment