ANDRE WARD - NO LONGER “FUTURE CHAMP”
By Ron Brashear
Inside Boxing Writer/Columnist

Oakland, CA– (IB – November 21, 2009) - Let’s just say DESTINY FULFILLED!  Andre “SOG” Ward (21-0, 13 KOs) made rather easy work of WBA Super Middleweight Champion, Mikkel Kessler (42-2, 32 KOs) of Denmark, in front of his hometown crowd in Oakland, California.   In the final fight of Stage One of the Showtime Super Six Tournament, not only did Ward make his statement in the tournament, he achieved his dream of becoming World Champion.  

The photograph that is accompanying this article comes directly from my Boxing Book of Champions and Andre autographed it as “Future Champ”.   Well…he will no longer be signing as “future champ” it will just be “champ”!

I don’t think there were too many folks even in the boxing business, thought that Ward would be able to just dominate Kessler the way he did tonight.   Over a period of 10.5 rounds, it would be hard to make a case for Kessler winning more than two rounds.  Granted, there were several “accidental” head butts that caused a cut over Kessler eye, there were also plenty of punches landing directly on the eyes that made those cuts worse, and eventually prompted the ringside physician to stop the fight at 1:42 of the 11th round.  Therefore, since the original cut over Kessler’s right eye was caused by the head butt, the fight went to the scorecards and the judges saw the fight as 97-93, 98-92, 98-92  all in favor for Andre Ward and via Technical Decision, Ward just became the new WBA Super Middleweight Champion of the World!

Ward was just simply better and quicker than Kessler and utilized superb boxing skills and controlled the fight with his jabs and over-hand rights while keeping Kessler off balance and tying him up.  It was a very good all around performance by Ward against a World Champion that brought heavy credentials to the ring and a lot of experience.  Kessler’s only previous loss was to Joe Calzaghe in 2007.  It was Ward that appeared to be the most experienced in this fight and actually dominated Kessler.

After the fight, Kessler did complain about the head butts and even inferred that they were intentional.  I can’t say I agree with that…but hopefully after Kessler watching the tape again, he will come to grips that it was more than head butts that lifted his title away from him in this fight.  His name is Andre “S.O.G.” Ward and he has definitely arrived and become a force to be reckoned with in this Super Six Tournament.  His next fight is scheduled to be against Jermain Taylor and Kessler will take on Carl Froch next in Stage Two.  The other bout in Stage two will be Andre Dirrell vs. Arthur Abraham.

So far…what an awesome tournament!  Hats off to Showtime for getting the fighters/promoters to all agree to this tournament and deliver such competitive excitement to the boxing fans.

Congratulations to Andre Ward on achieving his dream!

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Ron Brashear can be contacted at brashear@insideboxing.com, ron@youthofhonor.org