Sports News And Updates: Champion Andre Ward Still 'Hungry' Against Sakio Bika

Sunday, November 28, 2010

Champion Andre Ward Still 'Hungry' Against Sakio Bika

Filed under: WBA, WBC, IBF, Boxing Rumors, Showtime

WBA super middleweight (168 pounds) champion Andre Ward will make the second defense of his crown opposite Sakio Bika in Saturday night's Showtime televised bout from the Oracle Arena in Ward's hometown of Oakland, Calif.

A former Olympic gold medalist with a record of 22-0, that includes 13 knockouts, Ward is considered among the premiere fighters in boxing as he enters the clash with Bika (28-4-2, 19 KOs).

A married, deeply religious father of two young sons and a daughter, Ward earned his Olympic gold in 2004, two years after having endured the death of his father, for whom his trainer, Virgil Hunter, has stepped in and become a male role model.

But a little more than a year ago, Ward was viewed more as a young, up-and-coming prospect with the potential to be great.

All of that was about to change on Nov. 21 of 2009, when Ward, at 19-0, with 13 knockouts, entered his first match of Showtime's Super Six Super Middleweight (168 pounds) World Boxing Classic as a massive underdog against Denmark's WBA titlist Mikkel Kessler.

For not only did Kessler (43-2, 32 KOs) have more than twice as many victories and almost three times as many knockouts as Ward, but he also had held a super middleweight crown for nearly five years, while Ward had been a professional for less than that amount of time.

Yet it was Ward who wound up being the dominant fighter, taking the fight to his more experienced opponent and delivering a savage and bloody beating upon his rival bloody on the way to scoring an 11th-round, technical decision over Kessler, who had earned the WBA title with a seventh-round knockout of Manny Siaca on Dec. 12, 2004 -- six days before Ward made his professional debut by stopping Chris Molina in two rounds.

But that effort was still not enough to earn the respect of his next opponent, Allan Green (29-2, 20 KOs), who labeled Ward "a good young fighter," who "is like a humming bird, buzzing around and trying to get you to offset," adding, "I used to fight like that as an amateur, so I understand his style."