Andre Ward Sweet Science Teacher

By Shaun La: This upcoming weekend has Andre Ward (31-0, 15 KO’s) pitted in a true championship bout that the Light-Heavyweight division wants and what the sport of boxing needs overall in a rematch with Sergey Kovalev. Andre Ward vs. Sergey Kovalev (30-1-1, 26 KO’s) first bout positioned a by-the-book boxer (Andre) vs. a boxer who can punch (Sergey) into a combative contest, back in November of 2016. Depending on whom you ask (mainly the fans of either boxer), one will say that Andre pulled the win off by boxing smartly, later on in the bout. Others will protest that Sergey had won the majority of the rounds and should have remained undefeated—-a distinction that Andre will carry into their rematch.

What does Andre has to do to win? (My Opinion)

He is a professional boxer and when I state professional, this does not stop at Andre making a great income from boxing. I am talking about Andre’s lineage to boxing. From the amateur years, such as his experiences in the Olympics (winning the Gold Medal in Athens, Greece under the Light-Heavyweight division) and his early years as a humble, true to his craft boxer, while growing into a Pound for pound champion: such a professional mindset coincides with his boxing abilities–boxing abilities that had to deal with injuries, recovery, promotional and management issues, slowing down his activity inside of the professional boxing ring.

For some, Andre’s boxing style can seem boring, if you are the kind of boxing fan who judges the power shots of a boxer or fighter as an indication to look for the knockout or stoppage as the best talent to have in boxing. He boxes from a chess-match view. Jabs, hooks, defense, movement, outworking his opponent, but not in the sense of throwing a lot of punches all over the place. There is a precision to Andre’s boxing style.

Andre’s power settles down with an accumulation of punches, frustrating his opposition and their offense. Each round is a building block for him. Typically in the later part of the bout, Andre is up 7, 8, 9, 10 rounds, giving his opposition the mental experience of trying to make it to the 12th round, not trying to win, but to share one day with future listeners, “they went 12 rounds with Andre Ward.”

His bout with Sergey was a whole other meal and it was not a cakewalk! Sergey was aggressive in the early rounds. At one point, with 43 or 42 seconds left to expire in the second round, Sergey landed a serious, well-trained right hand to the left-side of Andre’s face/head and we as boxing fans witnessed Andre on the canvas for only the second time in his professional career. (Darnell Boone was the first boxer to knockdown Andre back in 2005, it was Andre’s 7th professional bout and he came back after the knockdown to convincingly win a unanimous decision against the gamed Darnell.)

The bout took a huge pause, because the world wondered if Andre would get back up from the power puncher who has the tradition of rattling his opposition until they realize the gravity of falling to the canvas. Andre did find a way to get back up and on balance with his own two feet. Courage, game, strength, fortitude or faith, he found a way to continue and box his way to a very debatable unanimous decision.

When a boxer losses a decision on the official scorecard, a unanimous decision can sting a lot more deeper than a split-decision; especially if you felt as if you won the bout. To know that one judge viewed you as winning the bout in a split-decision can calm an inner frustration for a loss. Besides a win or a Draw, a split-decision could seem slightly acceptable. But to witness a unanimous decision—it can make a boxer who did win some rounds, feel betrayed and hopeless to trusting the politics in professional boxing.

Andre has to have a nonstop effort of combos and foot movement. He has to form a committed jab in this rematch with Sergey. This kind of velocity can fuel a boxer’s mentality into forming a clinical display of smart boxing & the sweet science making a collection of formulas for Sergey to have to figure out.

Andre has to become the science teacher in this bout, if his success wants a clear win as an undisputed champion.

What is underestimated about Sergey? It would be his boxing ability. People are mesmerized by his knockout power. The jab that he extends to the heads and bodies of his past opponents could take on the appearance of a “power-shot.” If you study his boxing abilities, outside of his power-shots, you can surely view how Coach John David Jackson has encouraged Sergey to use his strong forward or side to side movement as a way to offset his opposition. In his past bouts, Sergey would plant his feet, use his long range & let his fist come forward with power-shots. Despite his deep amateur background with over 200 amateur bouts, Sergey does not hide his power. A by-the-book boxer such as Andre should be aware and ready to know Sergey’s physical signs of preparing to throw his power-shots; furthermore, I would not be surprised, if Andre’s coach (Virgil Hunter) has his boxer ready to accept some (as few as possible) of these power-shots, but to be able to regroup & not allow Sergey to become comfortable with throwing an arsenal of power-shots.

Coach Virgil holds such a wide range of thinking for the sport of boxing, he will present to Andre, full acknowledgements of setups that Sergey and his team has trained to surround Andre with. One such physical sign would be that Sergey will double up on the left hook, either to the body or to the head—in one of the two bouts that he had against Jean Pascal, he let go of three left-hooks, consecutively. It is a power-punch hungry habit from Sergey—if Andre can gauge Sergey’s punch count, he could take away the double up from Sergey. Thus making Sergey dependant on another punch combo that may not be as effective, because it is not his go-to punch combo, and it will be off rhythm.

What Andre has to do when it comes to Sergey’s power and range, would be to use movement to an uncompromising degree. Andre should not stop moving (not running, but using the boxing ring as a battlefield in terms of firing & relocating to another spot to fire again), because Sergey’s power layers out strong punches coming from a planted base. Even though Sergey has added some steps into his boxing ability in order to see new punching angles & openings. (In the past, he would plant himself in a space, close to his target range and fire, now, Sergey will actually faint a punch and then come around with a hook.)

Andre has to work off of his speed. I know that the attributes of speed or quickness (both of these attributes are different from one another) are usually donated to Welterweights, Jr. Welterweights and Lightweights, because the greatest boxers who perfected speed or quickness came up through these weight-classes. In terms of this particular bout, Andre has better speed than Sergey. If you look closely, you can see Sergey’s punches coming. Now, in real-time & being inside of the ring with him, this could be a different real narrative: his punches may not appear as slow as they are, when looking at them from the outside. Nevertheless, Andre should throw and move, relocate to throw again, move when Sergey put forth the aggressive forward progress, even if he has to tie him up, when Sergey wants to fight in the inside. Andre does not need to be boxing on the inside with Sergey. What Andre should concentrate on, should be about these elements: fluid movement in punches, relocating to throw new punches, and counters that are zoned in on when he sees Sergey’s feet planted, in order to keep Sergey’s power from coming in a full capacity.

Remember Roy Jones Jr. vs. Merqui Sosa?

I do not like to compare past boxing bouts with present boxing bouts, unless it is for an educational purpose and not a predication outcome. Go back and look at the Roy Jones Jr. vs. Merqui Sosa bout from 1996, which took place at Madison Square Garden in New York, City—with an agreed weight from both camps, not to exceed 172 pounds. Roy Jones Jr. has clearly stated that Merqui was one of the hardest puncher that he has ever been inside of the ring with; however, when you look at that bout, Roy (who happens to be one of the few professional boxers to have speed & quickness in one offense) put his ring’s I.Q. into a perspective that baited in Merqui, to the level where Merqui became focused with landing power punches, he had hoped would stop Roy. Yet, Roy’s speed with the combos, & quickness with knowing when to fire his initial punches as well as counter punchers, were all that he needed to throw–in order to throw Merqui into deep waters. Roy’s punches were plentiful, while Merqui was depending on that one power-punch landing that could change the energy of a bout. In two rounds, Roy made sure to defeat Merqui. After knocking Merqui down and then controlling the rest of the 2nd round with an abundance of unanswered, precision punches that had the referee, Ken Zimmer call a halt to the bout.

The momentum (footwork) from the Roy Jr. vs. Merqui bout might seem highly energetic when you watch it—but, it was all about Roy’s ring I.Q. being able to reconfigure Merqui’s power. A boxer can always defeat a puncher, if they stay with the strictness that comes with boxing with a basic but smart offense and defense. On the other side of the equation, a puncher can knockout any kind of boxer, if the boxer, goes into a brawl with a puncher.

Andre’s power has to be all about the mental boxing match. Sergey has really elevated his outside of the ring warfare with Andre. The psychological punches that Sergey has been throwing in press-conferences and interviews lands with racist insults to demeaning Andre’s punching power as ineffective. But this is boxing, being fishing buddies with your opponent before a bout does not happen. Not that insults should be respected in any kind of an environment—the desire to punch someone in the face and body could need a boost from a self-promotion that puts a boxer in the mood to make his opposition a stranger/enemy. Some boxers have limits, other boxers can go way too far. It would not be a fable to say that Sergey has went a little too far with his outside of the ring verbal punches—some of which can go as far back as 2015, with his taunting of fellow Light-Heavyweight boxer, Adonis Stevenson (the reigning WBC champion), comparing him to a monkey.

This is why boxing can seem conflicting to those who are not boxing fans—after a bout has met a completion, one boxer could end up inviting another boxer out for a beer—the same boxer who they tossed insults at before exchanging gloved punches with inside of a boxing ring. I guess that it is not ever personal, but the hurt business that boxing condones.

There is a lot of revenge, anger and anticipation to give payback (to Andre) coming from Sergey, which Andre will have to find a way to curve, if he wants to bend this rematch into a convincing win. Boxing can be a professional sport with a lot of misunderstandings. Being that there is a support system of boxing fans who would argue that Sergey won the first championship bout, Andre has a lot to prove in this rematch. The official scorecards along with the official ringside judges will be under a careful, watchful eye. Political and professional boxing wise, this rematch cannot afford to be about another heated decision, dividing this professional sport into arguments which are not about who was the best boxer the night of the bout, but who was the deeply connected, favorite boxer that commercially needed to win—because professional boxing is a business and a brand that generates a lot of income.

As I stated before, professional boxing needs this bout. Maybe for redemption for Sergey, confirmation of being a true champion for Andre, maybe a line of fairness to quiet the critics and the fans of boxing on either side of the championship boxers going into this rematch? When it comes to boxing, rematches can be about equal opportunities and if this bout develops into becoming a classic in the making, who knows, maybe a third bout could help shape the futures of both of these champions and their potential legacies.