Is Andre “S.O.G.” Ward Heir Apparent
to Joe Calzaghe?

by Ken Hissner

How many times have we heard “that’s when fighters were fighters?”  Andre Ward has a very tough act to follow in a division that had Joe Calzaghe rule from winning the vacant WBO title over Chris Eubanks, 45-2-2 in October of 1997 until defeating Mikkel Kessler, 39-0, in November of 2007 defending his WBA Super, WBO and WBC titles.

Calzaghe had won the IBF title in 2006 from Jeff Lacy, 21-0, and defended it against Sakio Bika, 20-1-2 also in 2006 before giving it up.  He won all 4 major titles in the Super Middleweight division before stepping up to light heavyweight and defeating legends Bernard Hopkins, 48-4-1 in April and Roy Jones, Jr., 52-4 in November of 2008 retiring with a perfect 46-0, 32 knockout record with 21 title defenses.  He won the first title in his 23rd fight and retired after his 46th fight.

Calzaghe’s 21 opponents he defended against had a combined 579-43-7 record or an average of 27-2.  He was never on the canvas from 1993 until 2003 when he was dropped by Byron Mitchell in the 2nd round.  It wouldn’t be until 2008 when he got dropped in the first round by both Hopkins and Jones that he hit the canvas again.  He proved he was able to get off the canvas and come back to win.  Only Robin Reid in 1999 and Hopkins in 2008 lost to him by split decision in all those 46 fights.  In retiring at 46-0 he was second only to the late great Rocky Marciano at 49-0.  Some have gotten to 48-0 and others beyond 49-0 but each and every one of them tasted defeat before retiring.

Now we come to Ward who this writer found out immediately after the fight that he hurt his left hand in training.  “He hurt his left hand off my head,” said Dhafir Smith.  Smith was Ward’s top sparring partner and former opponent out of Philadelphia.  In a day when fighters call off fights “because the ring was not the size we were contracted for” to any various reasons, Ward went into the biggest fight of his career injured and fought through the pain to earn his 25th straight win and 4th title defense adding the WBC title to his WBA title that he won in his 21st fight.

There’s no telling if Ward will reach 46 fights and still be unbeaten or if he will gain all 4 organization’s titles before moving up to light heavyweight where in the amateurs he won an Olympic Gold medal in 2004.  One thing for sure he’s a throwback to the old days for fighting through injury!  His opponents are 117-8 in the 4 defenses for a 29-2 average. 

There is talk that after Ward’s left hand which was broken and now in a cast for the next several months will have his eye on both Romanian born Lucian Bute, 30-0 (24), now living in Canada who is the IBF champion with 9 defenses and Russian born Robert Stieglitz, 40-2 (23), now living in Germany who is the WBO champion who has 4 defenses with 2 scheduled starting in January against Henry Weber in Germany and then in April against Kessler in Denmark.  Don’t be surprised to see a Ward-Kessler rematch by the end of summer in 2012 with 3 titles on the line.  Though doubtful a Ward-Bute fight will come about around April but if it did you would have a late summer fight with all 4 titles on the line.