Font Resize
It was a technical decision by a master of technique.
Andre Ward captured the WBA Super Middleweight title Saturday night by being too fast and too skilled for Denmark's Mikkel Kessler. Ward won on points when the bout was stopped at 1:42 of the 11th round because of a cut inflicted on a head butt three rounds earlier.
At that point, the fight was decided on the scorecards, with Ward winning 97-93 on one card and 98-92 on the others. He picked up two points in the Super Six World Boxing Classic before a delighted hometown crowd of 10,277 at Oracle Arena and a Showtime television audience.
Ward (21-0) next is scheduled to meet Jermain Taylor, though it's not
known if Taylor will be cleared to fight after being knocked out in his first bout against Victor Abraham.
Fighters get two points for a win, with a bonus point for a knockout or TKO. A draw nets one point and there are no points for a loss.
Given that Kessler (43-2) was the pre-tournament favorite, Ward's win is an upset. Kessler's only previous loss was to retired undisputed middleweight king Joe Calzaghe.
Still, Ward wasn't surprised.
"I feel like it was my time,'' the Oakland-based fighter said. "I was not intimidated by Kessler's record. I was a little surprised they stopped it when they did. I would have liked to have seen what would have happened.
"Some fighters are feared. I think I'm the most underestimated fighter in the game."
Ward and
"They were two accidental head butts, clearly,'' Ward said. "I'm not a dirty fighter. Everybody knows that."
Kessler, fighting in the United States for the first time, conceded Ward was "the better man tonight" but questioned Ward's tactics.
"He threw a lot of elbows and head butts but never got any warning,'' Kessler said. "He got me out of my rhythm (and) he was punching during the hold(s). He comes in with his head, he knows I'm not moving."
Ward, who was of the belief he could take apart Kessler's stand-up European style, dominated the bout from the opening bell. He gave the 30-year-old Dane a boxing lesson, landing with virtually every kind of punch and giving Kessler different looks. Ward fought both orthodox and southpaw style in the first round and occasionally switched up throughout the fight.
"It was just something to give him something to look at, keep him out of his rhythm," Ward said. "That was key tonight."
Ward landed a sold left hand early and had stinging straight right in the third. Blood was flowing from under Kessler's right eye by the fourth round. In the sixth, he unveiled an upperrcut that snapped Kessler's head back.
"He thought there was no way this kid with 20 fights was going to beat him," Ward said. "But I had other plans."
Kessler had grown desperate by the seventh and ninth rounds and missed Ward with wild, flailing punches, rare for someone who considers himself an accomplished boxer.
Kessler won only one round — the ninth — on all three scorecards. His face was cut and bloodied below and above the right eye and over his left eye. There was also a cut on the bridge of his nose, with referee Jack Reiss going to the ring doctor after the 11th round.
"He never hurt me," Ward said.
It was all too new for Ward to measure the euphoria of winning a title belt against the gold medal he won at 178 pounds in Athens, Greece in the Olympics.
"I can't compare it to winning the gold medal because it's going to take awhile for it all to sink in," Ward said. "This could have been my best performance but I need to watch the tape."
Most ringside observers thought it was indeed Ward's defining moment as a professional, making the words of former light-heavyweight champ and Showtime analyst Antonio Tarver sound prophetic.
"The guy's got his own flavor," Tarver said. "He does his work in the ring, he talks with his hands. If he wins he can be the new star in boxing."
