Andre Ward: Faith in God, himself lifted him from dark side to greatness
Editor’s note: “S.O.G.: The Book of Ward” documentary premieres Friday on Showtime.
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Andre Ward is as much a survivor as he is a champion.
That couldn’t have been more clear in the Showtime documentary “S.O.G.: The Book of Ward,” which chronicles his journey from a harrowing life on the streets of Oakland, California, to recognition as one of the best fighters of all time.
He came from a home in which both parents battled drug addiction. And he ended up on a similar path for a time, dealing narcotics while he was an amateur. He could’ve gone in one of two directions: toward life that statistics say wouldn’t end well or back to the gym, to which his father brought him as a child.
He chose the latter because he had positive voices in his life (including longtime trainer Virgil Hunter and a devoted wife, Tiffiney), faith in God and faith in himself. The rest is history.
“I always had drive,” Ward told Boxing Junkie. “I just always wanted to be good at things, I was always competitive. Doing things right always mattered to me. And just having Virg there and my dad while he was alive, different people along my journey who spoke truth to me when I didn’t want to hear it.
“My pastor at a certain point. Just two or three voices in my life that helped me make the right decisions. And then, of course, my faith. I needed a higher power to connect me with things I wanted to do.”
God was good to Ward, giving him once-in-a-generation talent and the willpower to make the most of it.
S.O.G., the son of God, remains the last American to win an Olympic gold medal. He turned the elusive trick in 2004 Athens Games by upsetting the favored Utkirbek Haydarov of Uzbekistan in the semifinals and beating Mahamed Aripgadzhiev of Belarus in the final.
And he was just getting started.
He was only 25 and relatively unproven as a professional in 2009 when he was entered in the Super Six World Boxing Classic, a six-man tournament that featured six of the best 168-pounders from around the world.
The favorites to win the championship were celebrated Europeans Mikkel Kessler, Arthur Abraham and Carl Froch. Ward was an afterthought, at least until his first-round fight.
Ward opened against Kessler, a fight in which the young American stunned many in the boxing world by outclassing his more-experienced Danish opponent for 10-plus rounds. The fight was stopped in Round 11 after an accidental head butt caused a gash above Kessler’s left eye but Ward had plenty of time to prove he was the better man, winning a wide technical decision.
As Dan Rafael wrote for ESPN at the time, “Although Kessler complained about the head butts and refereeing, the fact is that Ward simply kicked his butt.”
He never stopped kicking butt. He went on to beat replacement Allan Green, Abraham and Froch decisively to win the tournament and establish himself as the best super middleweight and a major figure in the sport seemingly overnight.
He had cleared a significant hurdle again.
“It was huge,” he said. “For me, a competitive person, to come out on top of that … I have the trophy right here in my office now. Every now and again I glance and it, look at the names on there and it just kind of feeds you. I think, ‘Man, we did that.’
“It was also a very scary moment in my career if you’re one of my handlers because that’s a sink or swim moment. I could’ve drowned in that tournament. I hadn’t beaten anybody up until that point.
“[Previous opponent] Edison Miranda was obviously a dangerous and tough contender but not at that level. Careers got ruined in the Super Six. I could’ve been one of them. So to come out on the other side just confirmed that I was the truth and that I was going to be there for a very long time.”
Ward’s next obstacle was outside the ring.
He entered into a protracted legal battle to extricate himself from his contract with promoter Dan Goossen over a co-promoter who Ward believed had a right to be part of his team. That’s the main reason he fought only twice between September 2012 and March 2016.
And before the dispute ran its course Goossen died as a result of liver cancer, in September 2014.
Ward had a positive takeaway from his relative inactivity during that period – most notably giving his body time to heal after so many years in the ring – but the loss of a man for whom he had affection still saddens him.
“[The inactivity] was a shame from the standpoint that it wasn’t ideal,” he said. “I don’t look at it the way everybody looks at it, though. People say, ‘Oh, you lost two years of your prime.’ I look at it like I got two years back because I was able to rest. … I think I extended my career two years by not fighting.
“And I learned a lot as a businessman going through that, being hands on with everything. It was painstaking, stressful work, but I learned a lot.”
Goossen’s death affected him more than many realize.
“It was a loss to me regardless of what people think or write,” he said. “Dan and I were family. Sometimes family fight. Unfortunately our fight was in public. Then to have a man die in the middle of the dispute. That was a very, very difficult thing to overcome and deal with.
“The worst part of it wasn’t the layoff, wasn’t not fighting. It was that I had no closure to this. I couldn’t even pay my respects.”
Ward fought only seven times after he won the Super Six tournament, the last five as a 175-pounder.
The biggest bout and most stirring drama of his career came in November 2016, when he challenged feared unified champion Sergey Kovalev in Las Vegas. Kovalev was a polished boxer with one-punch knockout power, which is why no one was in a hurry to tangle with him.
Ward could match the skill level of anyone but this was a significant challenge. And he had a problem going into that fight that wasn’t publicized: a knee injury that required drainage the day of the fight.
Then things got really hairy. Kovalev came out for the opening bell on fire, landing one hard shot after another until finally a right hand put Ward down on all fours.
Ward wasn’t hurt badly but he was in trouble nonetheless, as Kovalev had a 10-8 round and all the momentum. Would the fierce Russian build on his success and blow Ward away? That seemed to be where the fight was headed. Or would Ward find a way to regroup and turn the tide?
We know now what Ward is made of. He maintained his poise, made necessary adjustments and ended up winning a close, but unanimous decision to become a two-division titleholder.
Then, seven months later in the same town, he knocked out Kovalev in the eighth round to remove doubt about his superiority over his rival. Ward never fought again.
“Man, it was tough,” said Ward, referring to his sore knee and what followed. “It was tough, it was tough. Not just physically but emotionally and mentally. I found myself in those situations before in my life. It was the biggest moment in my life, the biggest moment of my career and things weren’t ideal.
“How are you going to respond now? Where is your faith now? It’s one thing to have faith when things are but when the wind picks up and starts to blow where is your faith now? It was a faith check for sure.
“I was really in disbelief. I was two hours away from the biggest fight of my life in Las Vegas and I have to have the doctor come to my house and drain my knee. … I learned from that that I can overcome [anything] even though things aren’t ideal.
“And I took that momentum into the second fight. I knew Kovalev had no shot. And we showed that.”
Ward thought about returning to the ring only once, after Canelo Alvarez knocked out Kovalez in November 2019. Had the Mexican star called him out, he said, he would’ve returned. Alvarez never mentioned his name, which in effect put Ward’s career to rest.
Now he’s remembered as one of the greatest fighters of his generation, an Olympic champion who went on to have a perfect professional career. And our admiration for him only grows as a result of the Showtime documentary, which lays out the imposing obstacles he had to overcome to accomplish what he did.
Ward was inducted into the International Boxing Hall of Fame in 2021. It was boxing’s way of saying, “We know what you did. And it was special.”
“That was just more for me,” he said. “… I’ve gotten to a place in my life where I don’t need validation. I know outside validation is fickle … so I don’t put a lot of stock in that. It’s good to see things and read things and hear things positive about my career.
“The Hall of Fame was more for me, though. I remember thinking, ‘I need this call. I want to be a first-ballot Hall of Famer so I can finally rest.”
