Tag Archives: Andre Ward

ANDRE WARD RETURNS WITH ONE-SIDED DECISION

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Andre Ward returned to the ring on Saturday night and earned a 12-round unanimous decision win over Sullivan Barrera in front of Ward’s hometown crowd in Oakland, CA. Ward (29-0, 15 KO’s) dropped Barrera in the third round of the IBF light heavyweight title eliminator with a left hook and had a point deducted for a low blow, finishing ahead on the scorecards by wide margins: 119-109, 117-109 and 117-108.

Barrera (17-1, 12 KO’s) lost for the first time and really didn’t present Ward with too much in the way of offense. The bigger Barrera did land some solid shots on Ward, but no damage was done and Ward was able to mount an offense throughout the fight.

It wasn’t vintage Ward and there was definitely rust. The HBO commentary said otherwise, but if you watched the fight objectively, Andre Ward took a long time to get going and didn’t finish strong over the final rounds. It was a good exercise for Ward, but a fight with Sergey Kovalev should be a couple of fights away, at least.

ANDRE WARD RETURNS JUNE 20

WBA Super Middleweight champion Andre Ward (27-0, 14 KO’s) will return to the ring on June 20th after a layoff of more than  a year-and-a-half to face Paul Smith (35-5, 20 KO’s) at the Oracle Arena in Oakland. The fight will be televised on the BET network and will be Ward’s first fight since signing with Jay Z’s Roc Nation promotional outfit.

Ward had a famous legal falling-out with his previous promoter, the late Dan Goosen. Since Jay Z has jumped into boxing, following successful representation of athletes in other sports, Ward is his biggest signing.

Oakland is Ward’s hometown and Oracle is currently the madhouse home of the NBA’s Golden State Warriors who posted the league’s best record and are engaged in playoff action.

Prior to the layoff, Ward had beaten Edwin Rodriguez via unanimous decision in November of 2013. Smith is coming off of back-to-back unsuccessful challenges of Arthur Abraham’s WBO World Super Middleweight title, the most recent happening in February.