By GREG BEACHAM, AP Sports Writer
OAKLAND, Calif. (AP)—While Andre Ward sat calmly on a nearby stool, Edison Miranda turned the canopied stage in the sun-kissed downtown square into his pulpit.
Miranda criticized Ward’s skills, then praised his opponent, then ripped him again. The Colombian fighter curiously proclaimed the imminent death of boxing two days before the two are scheduled to step into the ring. He announced God had personally guaranteed him a victory Saturday—all this after claiming he was tired of talking about the bout.
Miranda then stepped to Ward and glowered, hoping to punctuate his verbal threats. Ward instantly rose with a malevolent gleam in his eye—a look many have long wondered whether the last American Olympic gold medal boxer would ever flash at a foe.
“Don’t get my intensity wrong,” Ward said. “This guy’s whole game is built around fear and intimidation, and I’m not going to buy into that. I don’t fear any man, and he’s going to understand this now.”
The 25-year-old Ward is aware of the stakes in just his 19th pro fight since his triumph in Athens nearly five years ago. After numerous injury setbacks along his deliberate path, he’s finally in position to get a 168-pound title shot if he can beat Miranda in his hometown’s biggest boxing event in many years.
Miranda (32-3, 28 KOs) is a concrete-fisted puncher with unpolished skills who’s been stopped by Kelly Pavlik and Arthur Abraham, but he’s also the most accomplished and dangerous fighter Ward has ever faced.
A victory could finally grab the attention of the elite super middleweights Ward now believes he’s ready to fight: Jermain Taylor, Lucian Bute, Carl Froch or Librado Andrade, who all turned down the chance to meet Ward, trainer Virgil Hunter claims.
“I know this is a fight where everything is on the line for me,” Ward said. “This is the kind of fight I want. This is the test that I need, to show people what I’m all about and what I can accomplish in this sport. I want to be a world champion, I want that title shot, and Edison Miranda is in the way.”
Ward is both a disciplined boxer and a suburban father. His quiet demeanor and squeaky-clean piety—he chose “S.O.G.” or Son of God, as the nickname adorning his trunks and warmups—sometimes seem out of place in his cutthroat sport.
His promoter, Dan Goossen, has long claimed a dynamic champion lurked inside Ward, who developed himself as a teenager into a world-class amateur boxer. The Olympic version of the sport requires more elusiveness and less brute force, and Ward has spent the last several adjusting those skills to fit the pro game.
“He’s done the work to get to this point, and now he’s really, totally ready to fight anybody,” said Hunter, a fellow Oakland native who can’t remember a fight this big in his hometown since George Foreman knocked out Charles Hostetter at the Coliseum in July 1987.
Ward’s hometown fans have been bombarded by advertisements and attention surrounding the fight, which has the potential to be the most entertaining of his career. Nine of Miranda’s last 11 fights have ended in knockouts, and Ward had a streak of seven straight stoppages before his lopsided decision victory over Henry Buchanan in February.
Although Miranda represents a new class of opponent for Ward, Hunter isn’t impressed by his expensive suits or his big mouth.
“He brings on this persona, but the TV people created him,” Hunter said. “The networks gave him the name. Who has he beaten? He’s everything to the media what a boxer should be. Andre does things a different way, and he’s going to be rewarded for it.”
OAKLAND, Calif. (AP)—While Andre Ward sat calmly on a nearby stool, Edison Miranda turned the canopied stage in the sun-kissed downtown square into his pulpit.Miranda criticized Ward’s skills, then praised his opponent, then ripped him again. The Colombian fighter curiously proclaimed the imminent death of boxing two days before the two are scheduled to step into the ring. He announced God had personally guaranteed him a victory Saturday—all this after claiming he was tired of talking about the bout.
Miranda then stepped to Ward and glowered, hoping to punctuate his verbal threats. Ward instantly rose with a malevolent gleam in his eye—a look many have long wondered whether the last American Olympic gold medal boxer would ever flash at a foe.
“Don’t get my intensity wrong,” Ward said. “This guy’s whole game is built around fear and intimidation, and I’m not going to buy into that. I don’t fear any man, and he’s going to understand this now.”
The 25-year-old Ward is aware of the stakes in just his 19th pro fight since his triumph in Athens nearly five years ago. After numerous injury setbacks along his deliberate path, he’s finally in position to get a 168-pound title shot if he can beat Miranda in his hometown’s biggest boxing event in many years.
Miranda (32-3, 28 KOs) is a concrete-fisted puncher with unpolished skills who’s been stopped by Kelly Pavlik and Arthur Abraham, but he’s also the most accomplished and dangerous fighter Ward has ever faced.
A victory could finally grab the attention of the elite super middleweights Ward now believes he’s ready to fight: Jermain Taylor, Lucian Bute, Carl Froch or Librado Andrade, who all turned down the chance to meet Ward, trainer Virgil Hunter claims.
“I know this is a fight where everything is on the line for me,” Ward said. “This is the kind of fight I want. This is the test that I need, to show people what I’m all about and what I can accomplish in this sport. I want to be a world champion, I want that title shot, and Edison Miranda is in the way.”
Ward is both a disciplined boxer and a suburban father. His quiet demeanor and squeaky-clean piety—he chose “S.O.G.” or Son of God, as the nickname adorning his trunks and warmups—sometimes seem out of place in his cutthroat sport.
His promoter, Dan Goossen, has long claimed a dynamic champion lurked inside Ward, who developed himself as a teenager into a world-class amateur boxer. The Olympic version of the sport requires more elusiveness and less brute force, and Ward has spent the last several adjusting those skills to fit the pro game.
“He’s done the work to get to this point, and now he’s really, totally ready to fight anybody,” said Hunter, a fellow Oakland native who can’t remember a fight this big in his hometown since George Foreman knocked out Charles Hostetter at the Coliseum in July 1987.
Ward’s hometown fans have been bombarded by advertisements and attention surrounding the fight, which has the potential to be the most entertaining of his career. Nine of Miranda’s last 11 fights have ended in knockouts, and Ward had a streak of seven straight stoppages before his lopsided decision victory over Henry Buchanan in February.
Although Miranda represents a new class of opponent for Ward, Hunter isn’t impressed by his expensive suits or his big mouth.
“He brings on this persona, but the TV people created him,” Hunter said. “The networks gave him the name. Who has he beaten? He’s everything to the media what a boxer should be. Andre does things a different way, and he’s going to be rewarded for it.”
