At age of 33, current light heavyweight and former super middleweight champion of the world Andre Ward has decided it is time to hang his gloves and announced his retirement from boxing on Thursday. Ward retired undefeated with 32 wins, 16 of them being by KO. Ward explained his decision through statement titled “Mission Accomplished” on his official site saying the following:
“I want to be clear – I am leaving because my body can no longer put up with the rigors of the sport and therefore my desire to fight is no longer there. If I cannot give my family, my team, and the fans everything that I have, then I should no longer be fighting.“
He also posted a video with the same caption on his official Twitter profile.
MISSION ACCOMPLISHED ✌🏽https://t.co/FTBBwubLsd pic.twitter.com/dtQppu8pAZ
— Andre S.O.G. Ward (@andreward) September 21, 2017
Ward started boxing at the age of 10 and went on to have successful amateur boxing career that included two-time U.S. Middleweight National Championships (2001 and 2003) and Olympic gold medal in light heavyweight on 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens. He ended his amateur boxing career with 115 wins and 5 defeats.
After turning pro in December of 2004, Ward won his first title in 2008 defeating Jerson Ravelo in a fight for vacant WBO–NABO super middleweight title. He went on to win NABF, WBA, WBC, The Ring and lineal super middleweight titles. After defending the titles several times, Ward shifted to light heavyweight, making his debut in the fight against Cuba’s Sullivan Barrer. His second fight in this weight class came against Colombia’s Alexander Brand where he won vacant WBO International light heavyweight title. Ward’s last two fights took place in November 2016 and June 2017, both against Russia’s Sergey Kovalev. In the first fight, Ward won WBA (Undisputed), IBF, and WBO light heavyweight titles while in the second he defended the titles and also won the vacant The Ring light heavyweight title.
