Andre Ward has revealed the toughest opponent that he ever shared the ring with during his unbeaten professional career.
The California-native made his way into the paid ranks back in 2004 after he drew the curtain on his stellar amateur career, walking away from the 2004 Summer Olympic Games in Athens with a Light-Heavyweight Gold Medal.
Ward would go on to become a two-weight world champion during his career as a professional, reigning as the unified super-middleweight champion for a number of years before making the move up to light-heavyweight where he defeated Russia’s Sergey Kovalev twice within a 12-month period.
During his campaign at 168lbs, Ward defeated the likes of Carl Froch, Chad Dawson and Mikkel Kessler amongst many others, announcing his retirement from the sport in 2017 with an unblemished record of 32-0 to his name.
Speaking to Boxing News, Ward revealed four-time super-middleweight champion Froch as the toughest opponent of his career, as he claims ‘The Cobra’ reminded him of himself when they clashed back in 2011.
“The toughest competitor that I’ve ever fought – the guy that reminded me most of myself from an intangible standpoint and a guy that doesn’t wanna quit, and you gotta really knock him out to turn him away – would be Carl Froch.
“You feel the competitiveness about him. Kovalev was very, very sharp early on in our fight. Very crispy punches; very compact. He wasn’t the biggest puncher but his punches were very, very sharp and accurate. But he didn’t have the same drive and competitiveness that Froch had. I felt [Kovalev] break early in our first fight.
“’This is harder than I thought – he’s not staying down after I knocked him down. What’s going on?’ I never felt that about Froch.”
Ward defeated ‘The Cobra’ via unanimous decision when they locked horns for the unified WBC and WBA super-middleweight titles in the final of the Super Six Boxing Classic at the Boardwalk Hall in Atlantic City.
Known for his exceptional toughness, Froch is widely considered to be one of the greatest British boxers of all time. He suffered just two defeats during his tenure despite sharing the ring with a number of highly-rated opponents including Jermain Taylor, Jean Pascal, Arthur Abraham and Mikkel Kessler.
