As Ward said, he was just a “young puppy” when the tournament began, even though he had high expectations for himself.
“I expected from the beginning to make it to the final,” he said. “And slowly but surely we made believers out of a lot of people that doubted me.”
Now, 26 months later, few doubt the Oakland, Calif., native, who stands alone atop the super middleweight mountain.
He was the only fighter to roll through the tournament undefeated, taking a title from Kessler with ease in an 11th-round technical decision in his opening bout and manhandling his 2010 opponents, Allan Green and Sakio Bika (in a fight outside the tournament), in lopsided decisions.
Those blowout victories set the stage for Ward’s stellar 2011 campaign. This year he took apart Abraham for a no-doubt-about-it decision in the semifinals in May and then capped his tremendous tournament run in the Dec. 17 final, easily outpointing Froch in a masterpiece to unify two belts, win the vacant Ring magazine title and stamp himself as one of the best fighters on the planet.
Selecting Ward as the 2011 ESPN.com fighter of the year was an easy call. And it could be just the first of multiple such awards for Ward, 27, whose speed, skills, defense, smarts and fierce competitive spirit should make him a force for years to come.
“Andre is on a path for greatness,” said Dan Goossen, who has promoted Ward for his entire professional career.
Going into the Super Six final, no clear-cut fighter of the year had emerged, but many viewed the winner of the tournament as the likely selection, which was made even easier when Ward beat Froch so easily.
