Skilled Irish Amateur with a reputation for being a bit lazy/unfit/not so serious about his sport during his Am days. A member of the Gypsy community; he shares heritage with other notable Irish boxers like Andre Ward and Luke Fury. Bit old now, could make a contender or a titlist in the future, but so far all we've really seen him do is hurt his knee.
Heralded light heavyweight prospect Joe Ward, a 2016 Irish Olympian, is scheduled to have surgery on his injured left knee on Friday in New York, co-promoter Lou DiBella told ESPN on Wednesday night. "The surgery will take care of this," DiBella said. "His knee will be stabilized and he should be good as new. His spirits are OK but they'll be better if the New York commission changes the result to a no contest." Ward and DiBella are appealing the result to the New York State Athletic Commission, hoping it will change the result to a no contest after a video review. They believe that Ward went down when Delgado accidentally stepped on his foot. Ward, who is trained by International Boxing Hall of Famer Buddy McGirt, was 290-15 as an amateur. He won 15 Irish national championships, three gold medals at the European Amateur Championships (2011, 2015, 2017) and gold medals at the World Youth Championships (2010) and World Junior Championships (2009). * ^^^ and silver x 2 & bronze at the World Amateur Championships. Why leave that out? Huh? * Ward, 25, is expected to be sidelined for at least four months. Ward made his pro debut on last Saturday night's Gennadiy Golovkin-Sergiy Derevyanchenko undercard at Madison Square Garden in New York and was saddled with a shocking second-round knockout loss to Marco Delgado (6-1, 5 KOs), of Anaheim, California, when Ward's knee gave out and he collapsed to the mat, and was unable to continue. He dislocated his left knee cap, an injury similar to one he suffered five or six years ago, according to DiBella.
