Andre Ward amateur record 115-5, Golovkin 345-5

Hmm.. something doesn't add up. Ward and Hunter's accounts seem to differ.

lol at Ward's hair in the pic.

http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/spor.../2004-08-10-portrait-ward-boxing_x.htm#speaks

Of all the U.S. teams that have had dynastic runs in the Olympics, the boxers perhaps have fallen the furthest. Their 47 gold medals are easily boxing's all-time leading total in the Games, but in 2000 the Americans were shut out for the first time since 1948. (Related item: Andre Ward's favorites)

In 1996 their lone gold went to David Reid, in the now-discontinued light middleweight division, and in 1992 only Oscar De La Hoya brought home a gold for the U.S. boxers.

"It makes you just want to push harder," Ward says. "You want to overcome that. You want to overcome all the critics and all the doubters. We're the underdog, and we want to make people eat their words."

For inspiration, Ward points back to the 1976 team that won five gold medals and was led by Sugar Ray Leonard and the Spinks brothers, Michael and Leon.

"I don't know what they did differently back then that we're not doing now," Ward says. But he's willing to offer a theory.

"If I had to choose one thing, it was that they just attacked those other countries at the Olympics," says Ward, 20, a student of boxing history who travels with a portable DVD player and watches fights that took place before he was born.

"There was no fear, no doubts," Ward says of the 1976 U.S. team. "They just went straight at them."

In Athens, Ward likely will have to duplicate that fearlessness if, as expected, he reaches a gold medal showdown against the widespread favorite in his 178-pound division, Evgeny Makarenko. The Russian was the 2001 and 2003 world champion and is undefeated since losing in the 1999 worlds.

But Ward has a six-year unbeaten streak of his own. USA Boxing says because part of that streak piled up in obscure competitions when Ward was just 14, it can't put an exact number on the streak. Ward says he never bothered to keep track.

"If I win a tournament or a big fight, I put it behind me the next day and just keep moving on," says Ward, who guesses his streak is somewhere between 60 and 80 fights. "If you're worried that, 'Oh, I've got 60 straight wins,' to me that kind of takes your focus away."

Among Ward's assets are that he can fight left- or right-handed and he has a gift for spontaneously adapting his strategy.

"He's a very intelligent boxer," U.S. head coach Basheer Abdullah says. "He makes excellent ring decisions. I call him a rhythm fighter. He's one of the boxers we let find himself in the ring. For the most part, we let him dictate to us."

Ward says: "I've been blessed to be able to do a lot of things. I can fight you toe-to-toe. I would prefer to box you and make it an easy night, but it's not always going to be like that. I believe I have the heart and the skill to fight anyone toe-to-toe for as long as I have to. I have great wind, and I don't have one set style."

What defines Ward is his bold decision to fight as a light heavyweight. He's really a natural middleweight, the lighter, 165-pound division he intends to enter when he turns professional after the Olympics.

Andre Ward speaks on. ..

Favorite fight: Roy Jones defeating Clinton Woods in 2002 in Portland, Ore., to defend the world light heavyweight title. "I got to walk him to the ring and hold up his belt in the ring. That meant a lot to me. Here I was, meeting the man and talking to him face-to-face. It did a lot for my confidence."

Remaining an amateur for the Olympics: "There were times I got frustrated and wanted to turn pro and make some quick money, but I didn't want to move too hastily. We decided we came this far, and we decided we could ride it out another two years."

Who he's most like: "Roy Jones and Floyd Merriweather.

They hit and don't get hit. That's my game."

His favorite fight to watch on DVD: Muhammad Ali defeating George Foreman in the "Rumble in the Jungle." "I've watched it a dozen times on tape. He was the underdog, and everybody doubted him. He had a lot of confidence in himself, and I love him for that."


Boxers seldom elect to fight above their optimal weight, and Ward's decision to be a light heavyweight stems from a deal he made years ago with his cousin, middleweight DonYil Livingston.

"We made a pact we wouldn't fight each other," Ward says of Livingston, who was the USA's third-ranked middleweight in 2002. To avoid the potential conflict, he moved up and took his chances. He remained a light heavyweight even though Livingston didn't contend for the Athens Olympics.

"I've had success so far," says Ward, who's seeking to become the USA's first light heavyweight Olympic champion since Andrew Maynard in 1988. "I said I might as well keep fighting these big guys."

Ward doesn't fully concede that his higher weight class is a disadvantage.

"I fight bigger guys," he says. "Stronger guys ... supposedly."

Abdullah says: "Only the exceptionals can do that. I think he falls into that category. He's very talented."

Ward says some of his attributes are genetic, the gift of being the son of a San Francisco-area boxer who was 15-0 as an amateur. Frank Ward got his son into boxing at the age of 9, and his first competition came a year later.

Frank Ward's one admonition was to never slug it out on the street.

"My father just loved to fight," Ward says. "It's the same reason why I got into it, because I love to fight. But you've got to do it in an organized way. It's too dangerous in the streets."

Frank Ward quickly decided his son would progress better if someone else coached him. He settled on Virgil Hunter at King's Gym in Oakland. The two have been together about 10 years, and Hunter is Ward's godfather. Among the strength drills Ward does is pushing Hunter's Cadillac DeVille.

The only slowdown in Ward's career came in the months after August 2002, when he fought sparingly after the death of his father, at age 45, from a heart attack.

"My father was here today and gone tomorrow," Ward says. "I had no time to prepare for it."

In tribute to his father, Ward will take a page from Leonard's 1976 Olympic performance, when that champion wore pictures of his girlfriend and their 2-year-old son pinned to his socks.

Ward has been fighting with a picture of his father taped to a boot.

"He would be going crazy right now, and I know he'd be here," Ward says of his father.

"If he had had to come by boat, he'd be here.

 

What evidence is there that his team "knew" he couldn't beat Dirrell in the amateurs?

I can't speak for their amateur days, but I would personally choose Ward to have beaten (to beat) Dirrell at any point dating at least back to the year or so prior to the Super Six. Ward is mentally very strong inside the ring, whereas that is, at least in my view, Dirrell's weakest attribute.

With ring IQ and mental toughness being 2 of Ward's strongest points, that also happen to be 2 of Dirrell's weakest, I can't envision Dirrell hanging in there with Ward from 2007/08ish to present.

 

Hell of a typo that got past the USA Today editing team.

 

Nonsense. The slim advantage I'd give Dirrell in speed and overall athleticism is vastly overshadowed by Dirrell's shortcomings when it comes to over mental strength and ring intelligence. Ward's game is far more versatile, and his ability to adapt and think inside the ring towers over anything Dirrell has ever exhibited.

So Ward and Froch are not threats to GGG? Really now?

:smoke

 

Interesting. Hunter talks a lot of crap though, IMO. He's got a real chip on his shoulder.


In that interview I posted (actually the interview is split up into two videos - they're on Tha Boxing Voice Youtube channel - he said this

''Any fighter who walks around at 178-9 (10 lbs off the weight) is just not a LHW yet''. But he wants Golovkin who walks around at 168-170 to move up to 175 for a fight against Ward? atsch

He also said this.

''Not once have we ever said that we'd fight everyone from '68' to '75. Not once!''

But Ward said this in 2012.

"I am ready to fight the best 168- and 175-pounders that are out there," Ward told ESPN.com in a recent interview. "At this point, a big fight at 175 is interesting to me. I don't want to go up just to go up. But for the right fight, for a big fight, I would go up. I'm willing to fight anyone at '68 or '75."

And again

“People ask me on the street or on Twitter when I'm coming back,” said Ward, who is expecting his fourth child with wife Tiffiney in mid-June. “Well, I'm coming. I want Bute but I'm ready for any big fight at 168 or 175 pounds.”

 

Yeah, I noticed that too. How could they miss that one? atsch

 

Stallion, btw, have you ever seen Ward's highly controversial amateur bout against a guy called Rommel Rene? I think they fought a couple of times but the one I'm referring to was absolutely scandalous from what I remember about it - and I've only ever seen the edited version. Rommel was really bashing Ward up. He was catching him hard and often and had him hurt. Ward looked on his way a loss until he dipped into his box of dirty tricks. He took his holding and fouling to a whole other level. Rommel used to have the fight up on his Youtube channel but it seems to have completely vanished from existence now.