Andre Ward

Andre Michael Ward (born February 23, 1984) is an American former professional boxer who competed from 2004 to 2017. He retired with an undefeated record and held multiple world titles in two weight classes, including the unified WBA (Super), WBC, Ring magazine, and lineal super middleweight titles between 2009 and 2015; and the unified WBA (Super), IBF, WBO, and Ring light heavyweight titles between 2016 and 2017. During his reign as light heavyweight champion, Ward was ranked as the world's best active boxer, pound for pound, by The Ring magazine and the Transnational Boxing Rankings Board (TBRB), as well as the world's best active boxer in the division by The Ring, the TBRB, and BoxRec. As of January 2022, BoxRec ranks Ward as the twelfth greatest fighter of all time, pound for pound. As an amateur, Ward won a gold medal in the light heavyweight division at the 2004 Olympics and turned professional later that year. He rose to worldwide prominence upon entering the Super Six World Boxing Classic tournament in 2009, where he won the WBA (Super) super middleweight title from Mikkel Kessler in the opening group stage. In 2011, Ward defeated WBC champion Carl Froch in the tournament final to unify the titles, as well as winning the vacant Ring and lineal titles. That same year, Ward was named Fighter of the Year by The Ring and the Boxing Writers' Association of America. He later won The Ring's Comeback of the Year award in 2016 following a long period of sporadic in-ring activity between 2012 and 2015. Ward was inducted into the International Boxing Hall of Fame as part of the Class of 2021, his first year of eligibility. Andre was born in San Francisco, California, the son of Frank Ward, an Irish American and Madeline Arvie Taylor an African American. Andre's career started when his father took him to U.S. Karate School of the Arts, a boxing gym in Hayward, California, when he was nine years old. After his parents fell to drug abuse, Ward was looked after by his godfather, Virgil Hunter, who became his trainer and remained his trainer for the length of his career.