Former two-division world champion, Andre Ward, has admitted that he has struggled to adapt to life after boxing since hanging up the gloves with an undefeated record almost six years ago.
The general consensus of Ward’s retirement amongst the boxing community was that it was too early, having just twice defeated the light-heavyweight champion, Sergey Kovalev, to become a two-weight title holder aged 33-years-old.
However, the ‘Son of God’ revealed that he lost the desire to fight when he realised that his body could not keep up with the rigours of boxing and, as a result, felt that leaving whilst at the top was the wiser decision.
Despite being linked to comebacks over the years, the American has stuck to his decision – but it hasn’t been without its struggles.
In an interview on Shawn Porter’s podcast, The Porter Way, Ward explained the difficulties that he faced after calling time on his career.
“It’s been a blessing, but walking away and staying away has been harder than I thought. For me, I thought I was going to have to retire one time, but really I had to retire multiple times. You’ve got the official retirement, then there was the time where stuff started mounting and tell everyone that I’m not [coming back], the whole Canelo stuff. I was doing that for the people, but also more for myself.”
“I’m a thinker, so I’ve got a whole game plan on the comeback. How much time that I need, how it would look, I don’t want to campaign, just give me one or two. Fighting that stuff is hard, bro. I retired, but that drive didn’t retire.”
The warrior mentality that each elite fighter possesses is still burning deep in Andre Ward, but he looks set to stay on the outside of the ropes – that is unless a bout with Jake Paul presents itself.