Andre Ward retained his WBA super middleweight championship with a unanimous decision over Arthur Abraham Saturday night in Carson, California. Ward will now face the winner of the June 4 bout Super Six between Carl Froch and Glen Johnson. The folks at Bad Left Hook had some of the notable quotations from Ward following his victory. They also have some quality pictures from the fight you can check out:
Ward on Abraham
“Arthur Abraham was strong and very determined,” Ward said. “He had passionate fans and he didn’t want to lose in front of them. I’m going to stay humble and keep working hard. I want to be champion for a long time and take the least amount of punishment possible.”
Ward on Adjustments and Froch vs Johnson
“My trainer says that I’m the type of fighter to make adjustments and that’s what I did. I wish the refs would have let me fight on the inside – that’s what we trained for. But we made adjustments and got the victory. After a hard hit, I would go back to my corner and I would do two things: I would listen to my corner and talk to myself and I would say, ‘Bite down and fight back.’”
“I’ll fight Johnson or Froch, but I think the public wants to see Froch-Ward.”
I find it interesting that Ward specifically pointed to Froch-Ward as the bout people want to see. He says he’ll fight either one (obviously) but it seems a bit of a brazen statement from a guy who fights a fairly conservative style. Ward remains the favorite in this tournament but Froch would definitely be a tough matchup for the young super middleweight from Oakland.
The folks at BLH put together a quick look ahead at the potential matchups with Froch and Johnson. They pointed to Froch as a smart fighter still in his prime while Johnson is viewed as a guy with the experience to know everything Ward will bring to the table. Of course, the reason for that is Johnson is into his 40s.
Personally I’d have to think Froch represents the tougher battle, and thus the potentially better Super Six finale. While a Ward win over either fighter in the finals would be a solid win, defeating Froch would seem to have a bit more cache at this point.