Two-division world champion Andre Ward may have retired with an undefeated record and a place in the hall of fame, but he has revealed what he was thinking during his closest shave under the bright lights, when he was knocked down by Sergey Kovalev.
Ward dominated the super-middleweight division during the early 2010’s, making six defences of the WBA title whilst also picking up the WBC crown amidst a run that saw him comfortably dispose of the likes of Mikkel Kessler, Arthur Abraham and Carl Froch.
However, when he stepped up to 175lbs to face Sergey Kovalev, he was knocked down in just the second-round and has told Pro Box TV what was going through his mind.
“‘I gotta get him back! I gotta get him back!’”. I wasn’t supposed to be down there. I worked my whole career, my whole life, to stay off the canvas. I don’t even do sit-ups on the canvas, I don’t stretch on the canvas, I don’t do nothing on the canvas, I’ll go on the floor and do it.
“My whole life, I wasn’t supposed to be down there, it happens, but I’m just happy I knew what to do when I got knocked down. I knew to roll over, get myself together and get up.
“I don’t think that you can really teach that kind of toughness and grit and resolve, you can encourage it like ‘come on you’ve gotta go, you’ve gotta fight, they hit you so you’ve got to him them back’. But, that thing in you, that when somebody hits you, you want to get them back, I don’t know if you can teach that.
Ward went on to defeat Kovalev and then again in the rematch, conclusively bouncing back from the lone occasion that he was dropped in his career.