LAS VEGAS – The last time I saw Andre Ward, he was ascending the medal platform in a warehouse-type building in a dingy part of Athens, Greece, to receive the Olympic gold medal in the light heavyweight division. I'd all but forgotten about him until Saturday morning, when I shared breakfast and chitchat with him, a dozen or so other scribes, and his promoter Dan Goossen.And that is Ward's problem, which he and Goossen hope to address in earnest May 16 in Ward's hometown, Oakland, Calif., where he is scheduled to fight his first name opponent, the big-hitting (and big be hit) Colombian, Edison Miranda. Ward never seized the boxing public's psyche after Athens. He never cashed in that gold medal as others had before him, like, most notably, Oscar de la Hoya.
After all, another Olympics has come and gone and Ward doesn't have a world title to go with his 18-0 record. De La Hoya had multiple world titles by now.
"I don't want to be a fly-by-night fighter," Ward explained.
He's barely even been a fly-under-the-radar fighter. And he was the U.S. team's lone gold medalist at Athens.
Ward and Goossen said all of that is about to change. In Miranda, they go up against a raw puncher with a body by Adonis and a chin by Moon Pie. If ever a fighter was made to make Ward's style look exciting he was Miranda.
If Ward prevails, Ward said he'd like to fight the world super middleweight champion – finally – Carl Froch.
It is a shame that it has taken Ward so long to climb just this far. He's an engaging personality. He professes his faith – he's Christian – without browbeating. He is clean cut enough and well-spoken enough to be a pitchman. He eschews bravado, though that isn't always a good thing in the fight game. He's even part of the lineage that is all the rage in our country, biracialism – he's the product of a black and white union.
"He's always had the talent," Goossen said of his charge. "Now he's got the maturity."
I never thought of boxers as fine wines.
