Dennis Taylor

Editor & publisher of The Boxing Amusement Park

SUPERSTAR!

Andre Ward emerges as the new American idol

                He’s the one we’ve been waiting for here in the United States for a very long time. Andre Ward is the new face of American boxing, almost too good to be true. In fact, that might be an understatement.

                Ward streaked like a meteorite into the collective consciousness of a worldwide boxing audience Saturday night on Showtime with an electrifying beatdown of Denmark’s Mikkel Kessler, who held undisputed status as the supreme super middleweight in the world.

                It was the first world title fight in 42 years in the perpetually bummed-out city of Oakland, California --Hall of Famer Curtis Cokes retained his welterweight crown there on Oct. 2, 1967 with a TKO-8 over Charlie Shipes -- and the event at Oracle Arena thrilled a delirious crowd of more than 10,000.

                Kessler arrived with a record of 42-1 (the loss came to Joe Calzaghe), including 32 knockouts, and a ferocity befitting his ring nickname – “The Viking Warrior.”

The unbeaten Ward, just 25 years old, was fighting for just the 21^st time as a pro and had never faced an opponent in Kessler’s stratosphere. (A conquest of slugger Edison Miranda in May was the most-impressive thing on his resume.)

The betting odds? Kessler by 3-1. The result? Ward, 9-2 in rounds on two scorecards, 9-3 on the other, when referee Jack Reese stopped the fight on an injury (accidental headbutt) over Kessler’s eye at 1:18 of the 11^th round and sent the verdict to the judges.

 The new WBA world champion is the complete package, the kind you love to find under your Christmas tree or sitting next to your birthday cake. Andre Ward is exactly what we’ve been wanting and needing. He’s Hollywood handsome, intelligent, articulate, squeaky-clean (his ring nickname, “SOG,” stands for “Son of God,” which tells you something about his spiritual devotion.) At the post-fight press conference, promoter Dan Goossen summed up the new superstar with one, succinct phrase: “Andre Ward is a champion who is going to bring class back into style.”

And when he fought Kessler, we discovered that he’s also that rare kind of boxer who can galvanize an entire, jam-packed arena. Ward is absolutely fearless in an intelligent way. He’s innovative, capable of adjusting to his opponent on the fly. He’s horrifyingly energetic – a fighter who never stops punching.

All of those qualities contributed to the utter dominance of Kessler, whose own substantial skills were thoroughly neutralized by the heavy artillery that never stopped coming at him – not even for a few seconds. Andre Ward is a perfect fighting machine.

America has been waiting for a new superstar, “the next De La Hoya,” and he is here. The fact that Ward also is the most-recent U.S. Olympic gold medalist is the glittering bow on the gift wrap.

His next opponent in the “Super Six World Classic” will be former undisputed middleweight champ Jermain Taylor, probably in March, in Oakland again, if Goossen gets his way. Kessler, meanwhile, will try to regroup against Carl Froch, and Andre Dirrell and Arthur Abraham will meet in the third bout of the “Super Six’s” second round. The four fighters will the most points (2 points for a decision victory, 1 more for a KO) advance to the semifinals.

 Don’t be surprised if Ward and Kessler see each other again in the finals, and don’t expect Ward to be an underdog again. The whole world discovered Saturday night that this guy is very, very special.

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