They?re throwing a going-away party for Andre Ward on Saturday night at Oracle Arena.
The Oakland native is scheduled to fight for the light-heavyweight title in Las Vegas in November, so this will be the last chance for Bay Area fans to watch him tune up and wish him well.
Ward (29-0, 15 knockouts) is fighting Alexander Brand, another former super middleweight, in an HBO-televised fight. Don?t let Brand?s 25-1 record fool you. He is 39 years old, is a 16-to-1 underdog at the sport books, and even Ward and trainer Virgil Hunter admit Brand was pretty far down the list of desired opponents. Nobody else wanted to fight Ward, they say.
Doesn?t mean he?s not dangerous. Brand will be swinging for the fences.
?He?s the type of guy that?s going to come in, duck his head and swing and pray for a miracle,? Ward said. ?You have to focus against those guys so that there aren?t any slip-ups and you perform. And not just win, but win in good fashion.? ADVERTISEMENT
And then at that point, Ward can prepare for the biggest fight of his life.
The former super-middleweight champ will take on IBF/WBA/WBO light-heavyweight champion Sergey Kovalev on Nov. 19 at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas in what will be the first pay-per-view fight of Ward?s career.
Ward says he has tunnel vision and is not thinking about Kovalev, but at the same time, he mentions the boos Kovalev received when he attended Ward?s win over Sullivan Barrera in Oakland in March. ADVERTISEMENT
?If I am honest, it?s a twofold juggle that is going on,? Ward said. ?Brand is an old veteran who?s got nothing to lose. Those are very difficult guys to compete against. He?s not supposed to win. He?s not supposed to look good. Whatever he does is a bonus. …
?I am aware of the Kovalev fight. I am very cognizant, but I didn?t watch his last fight because he is not my next opponent. As a professional, you learn how to hear things but not hear them, so to speak.?
Ward, who came off a two-year layoff in 2014 because of a dispute with his promoter and then a shoulder injury, is fighting for the second time in five months.
?It was good to get back in camp right after the last fight,? he said. ?I was a lot sharper early in camp than I normally am. The last couple of years, typically, you have to get the rust off first, then work on getting sharp, work on technique and the game plan.
?This training camp was continuous of the last training camp. I probably put in over 130 rounds. I feel really good.?
With the Olympics beginning this week, he?s also feeling patriotic. Ward is the last U.S. man to win an Olympic gold medal in boxing, in 2004.
He?s getting a kick out of seeing all the stuff the current team does on social media. But he worries about it, too.
?I came up a little different in my Olympic days,? Ward said. ?Virgil Hunter is the type of coach who will get you away from everybody and turn your phone off. We didn?t have Snapchat in 2004. We didn?t have Instagram in 2004. We had a room that we all had to huddle around with desktop computers where we all had to get news about what was going on.?
Ward wonders when the current boxers have time to focus with all the Snapchatting and Instagramming.
?Part of you wants to tell them to shut it down and do it like I did it,? Ward said. ?Understand why you?re there, understand you?re not going to get this moment again. You don?t typically repeat when you go for the Olympics. Understand why you?re there, take it seriously, and everything else will fall in place.?
