BN: Six-and-a-half years into retirement, do you miss being an active fighter?
AW: Man, of course I miss it. Not everyday, though. Not everyday. Most days I’m content with the decision I made and happy with my life after boxing. I’m very, very relieved that I’m not on the clock anymore. Even when there’s not a fight coming up, my mind was always, “Okay, what I gotta do now? I can’t eat this; I gotta make sure my weight doesn’t get too high”. I’m no longer looking at my watch, having to get to a boxing gym, and that’s a relief. But there are weeks, and there are days, when I very much wanna be back in that grind and wanna get my team together and I wanna go through another mission and see what happens.
The majority of my days I’m at peace and I’m at rest. My decision wasn’t haphazard. It took a lot of thought – it took years. It was years that I thought about retirement. My plan was to retire on top. I studied Jim Brown’s retirement, from the Cleveland Browns – American football player. I studied George Foreman and how he walked away, and I know he came back after 10 years, but he left on his own terms; he did things his way. Rocky Marciano’s life was cut short but I looked at him retiring undefeated. I wanted to leave this way, but actually doing it, staying away, has been one of the hardest things I’ve ever had to do. I realised in retirement that my biggest fight and my biggest opponent wasn’t any one person, it was the sport itself, and I’m very motivated to beat the sport and not be another statistic or another individual or fighter that people say, “You gotta learn from him and don’t make the same mistakes”.
I stepped away from ESPN – my contract was up – so right now I’m not broadcasting. [But] fresh in retirement I worked for HBO; then the ESPN thing came. It was pivotal to be that close but not be in the ring. I still get some of the feels, being around the fighters; walking in the arena; hearing the fans. That was needed, because it’s a detox – you can’t do something like boxing for 20-odd years and then just close the door and never be around it ever again. I had to slowly get it out of my system. I’ll always have a piece in boxing. I don’t know what my next move is going to be but boxing’s always going to be a part of my life. It’s given me a life that I never thought was possible, and I’ll be forever grateful for the sport and always wanna give back to younger fighters.
BN: What’s the closest you’ve come to returning?
AW: After “Canelo” [Saul Alvarez] fought [in 2019, Sergey] Kovalev, there was a lot of clamour about us fighting because it was a common opponent, and the clamour has continued to be there because of that common opponent. But it’s interesting nobody ever mentioned us fighting before Kovalev. Right about the time I at least was open to it. “If he calls my name or makes a push for this, that’s something I’m interested in”, and he just didn’t do it. I was at a crossroads at that moment, and I chose to go on ESPN and reaffirm, “I’m retired, and I’m going to stay that way”. That’s the closest I’ve ever come.
There’s always people fishing and asking questions. “What would it take to get you back?” This is why it’s hard to walk away. You’ve got people pushing and prodding and poking; trying to see if the decision you made was genuine. I gotta tell ‘em, “I am content, and I’m happy with my life”. This is the other thing – the transition isn’t seamless. As much as I thought I’d prepared and thought I was ready, you’re not as prepared or ready as you thought you were. That doesn’t mean I did the wrong thing; it means it’s a lot harder than I thought. The key takeaway for me is I’m a man who’s always had a mission, and most of my mission was to fight; to defend and build what I had. You have to take that same drive and refocus it to another thing. I haven’t stopped moving, whether it’s the documentary [The Book of Ward]; whether it’s the book [Killing The Image]; being a youth pastor; raising my family. I find myself having different missions and you have to refocus the brain.
[Fighting Tony Bellew, then Anthony Joshua] didn’t get close at all because I retired three months after I fought Kovalev, so it didn’t have a chance to catch any steam. Bellew called my name after one of his fights in 2018, and I was on the set filming The Contender, and that got my juices flowing a little bit, but it never materialised. Those two fights never got to a negotiation or anything like that. But if I’d have stayed around they would have, because that’s who we were targeting.
[Financial security] is a major component. I’m doing very, very well for myself – my lifestyle hasn’t changed in retirement, and the goal is to keep it that way. I’ve earned a great living without throwing a punch or taking a punch, and I don’t talk a lot about that – I don’t put it in front of the world’s eyes – but I’ve been very, very blessed in retirement and it has nothing to do with me throwing a punch or taking a punch, and that was the goal all along.
BN: How would you have attempted to beat Anthony Joshua?
AW: My fluidity, and my physical strength – I know nobody can imagine me being able to go strength for strength with Joshua because of his size and the way he looks, but I don’t think I’d have been overpowered from a physical standpoint. The key thing would have been my movement and my inside fighting, believe it or not, and my goal would have been to wear him down. He has a rocket right hand that is very, very strong – if you stand in line for it. I don’t see a whole lot outside of that. His most natural punch is the right hand. It’d have been a dangerous proposition because you don’t wanna get hit with that with a guy that size. It’d have been to wear him down round after round after round and avoid his big shots in return. I would have let the fight come to me. I’d definitely have been trying to win. I’ve never had problems with bigger fighters – never. Amateurs; pros; sparring; I’ve always done better against guys that were physically big, or taller than me. It wasn’t a “gimme” fight, but I’d have come out on top.
BN: How much does your future health concern you?
AW: I’m not gonna say I worry about my health. I’ve thought about it from time to time, because I have a family, and you think long-term – I’ve been boxing for a very, very long time. But I’m grateful for being taught the craft and taught the right way, and even that – you’re gonna get hit and take some level of punishment. God’s got a lot of work for me to do, and I can’t do that work if I’m messed up in the ring. I always knew I’d be fine if I stopped at the right time. We did that. I can’t get the sparring sessions and tough fights back but I’m confident I’m gonna live a long life and help a lot of people out along the way. I’m very proactive [at monitoring my health].
Ward attends the fight between Gervonta Davis and Ryan Garcia at T-Mobile Arena on April 22, 2023 in Las Vegas, Nevada (Mindy Small/Getty Images)
BN: How crucial to your overall success was winning Olympic gold at Athens 2004?
AW: It’s everything, right? I love to win, and I couldn’t imagine life – even though it’s a great achievement – with a silver or bronze. When I was a kid it was, “I’m gonna win gold”. We never talked silver, or bronze. It was about winning, and representing my country, and when I come out of it I started to realise how big of a feat it actually really was, and that my name was in the history books with all-time greats, no matter what I did as a professional – that’s when it hits you.
I couldn’t imagine life [without] that gold medal. If that was my road, I believe it would have worked out – it would have been harder; it’d have taken longer for me to get to certain pay and opportunities; it opened a lot of doors for me – but I couldn’t imagine a pro career without it.
BN: How crucial was entering the Super Six?
AW: That was a very risky proposition, in hindsight. I could have folded in that tournament. I easily could have been taken out by [in my first fight in it, Mikkel] Kessler. I hadn’t fought at that level before. He was a very, very, very good champion. It was a sink-or-swim moment in my career, and it was all at once [via similarly tough opponents following in succession].
It made the whole world become believers. If you don’t believe that Andre Ward is the real deal at that point in time, you’re just hating. My flag in the game was cemented. I still had fights that I had to win [afterwards], but there’s no question about what I had. The only guy that didn’t make it in the tournament, Lucien Bute – I gave Carl Froch that opportunity. That was my fight, but I didn’t think it was right for him to sit on the outside and get the winner – he can get the guy that was the runner up. Carl Froch never thanked me for that, by the way. We went on to fight the light-heavyweight champion, Chad Dawson. It cemented that I belonged at that level, and when you come out of something like that you can only be better; you can only be tougher, and harder to beat.
BN: Who was the best you fought?
AW: Man, that’s a good one. There is no best – they are different. They’re tough for different reasons. The toughest competitor that I’ve ever fought – the guy that reminded me most of myself from an intangible standpoint and a guy that doesn’t wanna quit, and you gotta really knock him out to turn him away – would be Carl Froch. You feel the competitiveness about him. Kovalev was very, very sharp early on in our fight. Very crispy punches; very compact. He wasn’t the biggest puncher but his punches were very, very sharp and accurate. But he didn’t have the same drive and competitiveness that Froch had. I felt [Kovalev] break early in our first fight. “This is harder than I thought – he’s not staying down after I knocked him down. What’s going on?” I never felt that about Froch. One of the most skilful had to be Chad Dawson, and the hardest puncher was definitely Edison Miranda – no doubt about that. The dirtiest fighter was Sakio Bika – he can have that award.
As much talk as there was of my first fight [with Kovalev being controversial], that’s really my crowning moment. I had to do something I’d never had to do before. Get off the canvas and come from behind to beat that calibre of fighter. That’s the fight that sealed anything for me about the type of champion I was. I made a rookie mistake – we both saw an opportunity for a right hand, I had my left hand down, I took a half-step to the side to try to get leverage, he didn’t take that half-step, his right hand was on the runway ready, he launched his and got there before I got there. The first round and-a-half I was bit tight and thinking – trying to get my range and figure things out – and surprised at how sharp he was early on. He didn’t have a feeling out process. He was punching to get his rhythm and range and I was thinking and getting hit. When I went down, which unfortunately was the best thing that could have happened to me, all bets were off. I went from being shocked, to embarrassed, to angry.
BN: Carl Froch was, last year, inducted into the International Boxing Hall of Fame…
AW: He deserved it, for sure. Me and Carl have our banter back and forth, and Carl is Carl – he’s gonna talk about himself; he’s gonna talk about the 80,000 [laughs]. It’s funny, because you know how he is and I don’t think he can help it. As a fighter, as a résumé and his body of work, I respect him because he was not the most talented guy, by far, and this is a guy who wrote down every workout; who has booklets of every workout; went about his craft the right way. He was very, very tough; very, very durable. He believed in himself and had enough courage to speak and put himself out there – and most of the time he came out on top. He totally deserves to be a hall-of-fame fighter, no doubt about it.
BN: Saul “Canelo” Alvarez has succeeded you as the world’s best super-middleweight. How good is he?
AW: He’s done a lot for the sport. He has a lot of fanfare; he has a country [Mexico] behind him; his marketability is through the roof. The eye test, and what you see – he’s a really, really good fighter. The only problem with Canelo is that because of the marketability and because he can sell out against anybody, there’s no motivation to go and pick a couple of prime fighters to fight, and risk losing your status. I haven’t seen him against the best, consistently, throughout his career, so he’s a very good fighter – I just don’t know how good he is. It’s similar with [Gennady] Golovkin. When you face a certain level of competition along the way it’s, “Dude, you can fight”. But I don’t know how good – maybe you needed those other two or three fighters to bring out the best in you and we could have saw you at another level. That’s my only concern with Canelo. He’s a really good fighter; I like his style. He loads up a lot; he could box a little bit more and hide that power a little bit more. But he’s been successful; he’s made a lot of money. I just don’t like the picking and choosing. You shouldn’t fight a top fighter every fight – that’s not smart. But when you know that there’s a guy out there – there’s a couple right now – I can’t guarantee he’s going to take those fights and risk it all. His legacy is already set, but what’s gonna be the excuse? If you have the status that he has, and there’s somebody in your neighbourhood – at your weight class – you have to deal with him.
BN: Joe Calzaghe preceded you as the best. How good was he?
AW: Man, Calzaghe – he was another guy, a competitive type of person. He didn’t have a lot of punching power – threw a million punches. Always prepared the right way; loved the father [and trainer Enzo] doing it with his dad, and he had that drive about him. He was a dog. I have nothing but respect for Calzaghe – he’s always done it the right way.
BN: Would you have beaten him?
AW: Of course I believe I’d have beaten him, but it wouldn’t have been easy. You gotta deal with the volume; you gotta deal with the angles; you gotta deal with the southpaw stance, and you gotta find a way. I’m a qualitative puncher over a qualitative puncher, and he’s the opposite – he’s punches in bunches, and I’m trying to get my shots in at the right time, and keep enough distance or smother you to cut down your punch counts. It’d have been a fascinating match-up.
The big, one shot would have been my concern with Anthony Joshua. He doesn’t have the style – he’s not like a big man, like George Foreman. George knows how to tie you up and walk you back and wear you down. [Joshua’s] trying to box and be cute as well. I can look out for that right hand a lot easier when you fight like that, so Joe Calzaghe would have been a tougher fight. A different style, and a different mentality.
BN: How much does your success owe to your trainer Virgil Hunter?
AW: I owe him a lot. He’s more than just a trainer. He was a real father figure. Key moments in my life, man – outside the ring – he saved me. Used his voice; used his words. His efforts to steer me back on the right path – to stop me from going down the wrong path too long. You guys may never have had hall-of-famer Andre Ward. I give him immense credit for what he’s given to my life and I’m just grateful that we crossed paths.
He was the right fit for me. In my book I talk about how my father, Frank Ward, started me out, and my dad was an all-or-nothing kind of guy. “Throw the jab”, and if you don’t do it, he’ll let you hear. As a young kid I would shut down and couldn’t perform with that kind of ridicule. He was smart enough to pass me on to Virg. Virg had a different approach. Virg was very philosophical with his approach; very much in his head, and he made boxing fun. I took what he initially gave me and took it to the next level. I needed you to motivate me. I needed you to give me the right words at the right time; help me understand the magnitude of the moment; remind me who I am and why I’m here. Virg did those things excellently. He was a master at knowing what to say to me fight week; right before a fight; in a corner. He knew what to say; when to say it.
BN: Why has the US struggled at the Olympics for so long?
AW: It starts with USA Boxing. We’ve had an Olympic coach [Billy Walsh] for years now – he’s doing a good job – but over the years there’s been a lot of turnover. The kids don’t know who’s going to be their head coach from quad to quad; every four years. A lot of that has to do with politics. That’s hurt us. We’ve got the best talent in the world, but we haven’t always shown it. It’s also a team effort. You’ve gotta pull on the alumni – people who have been there and done that, to come in and talk to the kids, as part of the coaching staff, and give back in ways that they can give back, because the athletes will relate to these people. Maybe sometimes more than the head coach. The combination of not having stability, and not always having the right coaching situation, along with not pulling on the alumni – which other countries do. That’s a problem. It’s hurting the athletes.
BN: What didn’t we see when the photo of you, Floyd Mayweather and Terence Crawford with Shakur Stevenson – before Stevenson’s fight with Edwin de los Santos – was taken?
AW: It’s fight time for me, so I wasn’t really doing a lot of talking. I was pretty much locked in – I feel it a lot when I got people I’m close to that are fighting. I get more nervous for them than I did for myself. But Floyd just came to support – [Stevenson] has a relationship with Floyd; he obviously has a relationship with Terence Crawford. We didn’t expect to take that photo – it just kind of happened. It’s just people rallying around a young fighter and trying to give back and show support.
He’s gonna take a little bit from everybody and he’s still trying to figure it out. But he’s accomplished a lot along the way. [Observers] lost sight of that. He’s got everything it takes [to earn parity with the others in that photo].
You have to be very careful to not pigeonhole everybody, because some don’t feel this way. But I’m not going to act like I haven’t faced that; haven’t had to field those questions, and be pressured – and it’s hard to know what that pressure is unless you walk in our shoes for a young African-American fighter – to be the next Floyd Mayweather. That’s the form of entertainment that a lot of people wanna see, so, “I have to talk like Floyd; I have to turn up like Floyd; All Access; 24/7; whatever it is, and I gotta talk like that”. I don’t feel like we have the right or the opportunity at times to be soft-spoken, be family men, or to go about our business in a certain kind of way – that’s deemed as boring. Then I see individuals that are not even from our country that come here, and before they can find their voice and find their footing, a lot of time’s the media’s speaking for them. “He’s the most avoided.” I’ve seen this take place for years. These are things people don’t talk about or wanna talk about. They seem surprised when I bring it up. I don’t bring it up often, but it’s a thing and it has been a thing, and everybody, regardless of what race or colour they are, should be able to be themselves.
