Andre Ward career is so perfect, no room for error is the only way to describe it, as we all know he gradually moved down in weight as a Pro to reach his physical peak at his pro-debut, it paid off best for Andre Ward who won the Olympic Gold at 176. The Lower-IQ coaches & so-called Boxing advisers naively tried to roid him to Cruiser & eventually move him to Heavy ala Holy. Andre Ward politely dismissed them & entrusted the ATG Boxing expert Dan Goossen to handle the early phase of his pro-career. However, if we go back a bit to the earlier years of Andre Ward we see a pattern of strategic thinking as an amateur boxer. Andre Ward plan to win the 2004 Olympic Gold medal, was not an accident. He studied all the top amateurs, the Middleweights at that time had 2 big names GG & GGG both were solid Elite level amateurs, Andre Ward would have been able to beat both, but he saw a stylistic opening in Light heavyweight. The strategic thinking paid off, Ward got his Gold, at Middleweight GG beat GGG & Andre Ward turned Pro moving down to 168 where he became the G.O.A.T. of this modern weight-class. Andre Ward understood everything there is about boxing as a Teen, not sure if its hard work or abnormal intelligence, maybe a mix of both.
Son of Headbutt looked juiced at times during his career., not that most boxers aren't anyway, it's impossible to say. His best "wins" are tainted: Kessler and Kovalev x 2. The way he treated Goosen showed his ruthlessness.
Goosen couldn't get him the big fights he promised. Therefore he defaulted on his contract. That is why I always say that fighters should sign on a single fight-by-fight deal and always insist on a signing bonus if the promoter insists on a long(er) term deal. Ultimately though, traditional promoters will die out and we'll get the DAZN type of dealings taking over; the network builds the profile, fronts the money and pays the purse. No need for a promoter beyond that all.....
Nobody is nominating Andre Ward for a Kindness award Andre Ward is a text-book instrumental Dark-Triad Man (Machiavellian-Malignant Narcissist icw Sub-Clinical Primary Psychopathy), with complete absence of Sociopath-Dramatic traits The complete absence of Emo-Sociopath traits (Secondary Psychopathy aka Quasi-Psychopathy within the Cluster B Dramatic personalities); is due to the presence of a biological-father figure in his childhood, Mother-raised boxers turn out to be more Dramatic & fun to watch, but the excess in Emo-Dramatic traits backfires & they easily fall prey to Pimps-Promoters who play the father figure & make unfavorable decisions for them. His father possibly had (Sub-clinical Primary Psychopathy & Malignant Narcissism), Andre Ward got his physical advantages from his mother genes, otherwise he would have been another physically inferior politician. Primary Psychopaths are strictly attracted to physical attributes with disregard to social norms & emotions, the malignant narcissist trait made his father immune to social-criticism. The instrumental thinking of his father, put Ward inside the boxing Gym as a Child, Machiavellian traits started here, he exploited everyone & everything in a perfect manner. Bitter haters of Ward have zero chance, we are lucky that Andre Ward has very low Sadistic traits, (below average even compared to average peasants-citizens), because if Ward wants to inflict harm upon anybody, he can easily do it....The Lack of killer instinct is obvious, as a boxer he did the exact surgical damage necessary to achieve his goals...
That Kessler fight is tainted, but it was also a tremendous performance from Ward. He dominated the best SMW at the time. But besides that, I don´t recall Ward really headbutting anyone. Except Bika. That was one of the best matches when it comes to dirty boxing.
