ANDRE WARD was not your typical boxing superstar.
For much of his career the unbeatable American shied away from the limelight.
He just let his boxing do the talking.
The last American man to win an Olympic gold in boxing, Ward then embarked on a 32-0 professional career that would see him become world champion in two weight divisions, always accepting the toughest fights on offer… and always winning.
Ward, now 39, then surprisingly hung up his gloves aged just 33 in 2017.
He has since done punditry work for ESPN and even starred in two Creed movies alongside Michael B. Jordan and Sylvester Stallone.
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Towards the latter end of his career, the San Francisco-born star felt it was time to tell his story.
With Ward, there is so much more than meets the eye.
The former super middleweight and light heavyweight king grew up in Oakland with his father, Frank.
His mother was scarcely around in those days, suffering with a drug addiction.
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Aged 12, Ward discovered his father’s own demon – that he was addicted to heroine.
“Man, when you first start to get wind of it, it’s still kind of discombobulating and confusing,” Ward told The Athletic earlier this year.
“All I knew was that the drugs could take my parents away.”
At nine-years-old, Frank had taken Ward to Virgil Hunter’s boxing gym alongside his brother Jonathan.
When Ward’s father went for treatment as he battled his addiction, it was Hunter and his wife Millie who took him in.
Speaking to Andscape in 2016, Ward said: “Dad lost the house when he went to get treatment when I was 11 or 12. That’s when Virgil took me in. He lived with his wife nearby.”
At 13, Ward’s anger at his situation saw him fall into habits that could have jeopardised his future.
Then I ended up giving in to those same generational curses — using drugs, drinking, not caring about boxing
Andre Ward
He told The Athletic: “You don’t have the empathy to understand that it’s an addiction; you just know that, ‘I’m tired of this happening, and it’s causing this type of friction in my house.’
“It just birthed a lot of rebellion in me, man, and a lot of anger and frustration that I didn’t know how to deal with.
“Then I ended up giving in to those same generational curses — using drugs, drinking, not caring about boxing, totally neglecting my gift and thinking that I wanted to be on a street corner.”
Ward found out his then-girlfriend, now wife, Tiffiney was pregnant at the age of just 16.
He described the situation as being “kids with kids” – but was inspired by Tiffiney’s resolve.
Just weeks after winning the Under-19 National Championship in August 2002, Ward’s life was turned upside down once again.
Frank had died of a heart attack.
Left devastated, Ward later explained: “I was angry at God. The main person in my life was gone. The worst-case scenario in my world happened. My dad was gone. No warning.
“I wanted to stay numb in this completely surreal way. So I just began spiralling out of control in a way I know a lot of people never come back from.”
Ward’s faith eventually got him back on track, with Hunter telling him: “I don’t know who you rolling with, but I know this, God’s got his hand on you, son. You ain’t gonna get away with anything.”
Having had his second child with Tiffiney aged 18, Ward represented Team USA at Athens 2004, winning Olympic gold by beating Belarus’ Magomed Aripgadjiev in the final.
AN OAKLAND CHAMPION
He launched his professional career later that year with a win over Chris Molina at Staples Center in Los Angeles.
Ward won his first super middleweight title in his 16th fight, beating Jerson Ravelo in 2008.
He then earned the WBA’s super middleweight title for a victory over Mikkel Kessler the following year, made all the more special by doing it at Oracle Arena in Oakland.
In the final of the Super Six World Boxing Classic in 2011, Ward cemented his status as the best in the world with a victory over Brit Carl Froch.
Ward opted to move up to light heavyweight in 2016, comfortably out-pointing Alexander Brand to win the vacant WBO title.
He followed up his triumph over Brand with two epic victories over Sergey Kovalev, adding IBF and WBA titles to his collection.
And then he shocked the world by calling it a day.
I didn’t plan on all of these different things happening, but I did plan on life after boxing
Andre Ward
Ward, now a happy father-of-four, told Sports Spectrum earlier this year: “More or less, you miss it. It’s something I’d done for 23 straight years and then was abruptly over with.
“As for why I stopped, I hear a lot about the hits, but it’s not necessarily the hits… of course I want to be in good health for my family, my wife, but also for the state of the game.
“We don’t have a lot of good endings in the sport, and I’ve been very cognizant and aware of that. I wanted to be a guy who didn’t fall into that category.”
By the time he retired, Ward had already played the part of Danny “Stuntman” Wheeler in the hit-film Creed.
He later reprised his role for the sequel – while until earlier this year he was on ESPN’s main roster of boxing pundits.
And Ward admits move onto the big, and little, screen was never a long-term ambition.
‘YOU MISS IT’
He added: “I didn’t plan on all of these different things happening, but I did plan on life after boxin-g.
“I had been broadcasting, and I’d been working on some things because I had the end in mind even during the journey. Internally, boxing was always something that I did, but I never wanted to make it who I was, because I knew the end would come some day.
“A lot of guys don’t think about that, and that’s when you see a lot of depression and stuff. It catches them off guard that it’s over, so I wanted to prepare.”
On how his Creed role came together, Ward revealed: “Ryan Coogler is, in my opinion, the hottest director in the game right now, and he’s a friend of mine from the Bay Area.
“We had heard about each other around the time Creed was in pre-production. At first, we had mutual friends but didn’t know each other, and we finally connected, and he said, ‘Listen, bro, I got a role for you.’
“I told him, ‘I don’t even act,’ but he said, ‘I got a role for you.’ So I read the script, and I said, ‘Man, I’m on board.’
“That segued into doing the sequel, coming back as Danny ‘Stuntman’ Wheeler, and the new director, Steven Caple Jr., is a good friend of Ryan’s, so it was a perfect transition. I can’t forget about Michael B. Jordan, either, because he was awesome in helping it come together.”
Ward’s incredible life has now been turned into a new Showtime documentary, ‘S.O.G.: The Book of Ward’, produced by LeBron James and Maverick Carter’s Uninterrupted.
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“Sometimes, I laugh at all this,” Ward told Sports Illustrated.
“It’s wild. I’m 39. I’m not even 40 yet.”
Source: Boxing - thesun.co.uk
