ESPN.com reported that WBA, WBC and The Ring super middleweight champion Andre "Son of God" Ward was voted Monday the 2011 “Fighter of the Year” by the Boxing Writers Association of America (BWAA).
Ward (25-0, 13 KOs), a Bay Area native who became the first American to capture boxing gold in eight years as a light heavyweight at the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens, unified two titles and won The Super Six World Boxing Classic when he trumped Carl Froch by unanimous decision on December 17 at Boardwalk Hall in Atlantic City, N.J.
Ward, who has unbelievably not vacated the squared circle on the losing end of a bout since he was a 12-year-old amateur, will receive the Sugar Ray Robinson trophy at the BWAA’s 87th annual banquet at a time and location to be decided.
"I want to thank God for giving me the strength to put in the work year after year to get to this point. I also want to thank my manager, James Prince, my promoters Antonio Leonard and Dan Goossen, everyone who is a part of Team Ward, as well as all of my family, friends, and loyal fans who have been behind me all these years," Ward, 27, told Dan Rafael of ESPN.com. "This award is just as much for them as it is for me.”
“The Son of God,” currently rated by Ring Magazine as the fifth pound-for-pound boxer in the world, emphatically declared that winning this award will only further motivate him to improve as a prizefighter.
"Even in the midst of receiving this tremendous award, Team Ward is not going to let up. In 2012 and beyond we're going to push forward and, God-willing, we can be considered for these awards every year,” said Ward, who is now in position to become a national superstar and household name like fellow American gold medalists Muhammad Ali, "Sugar" Ray Leonard and Oscar De La Hoya. “It's easy to get comfortable at a time like this, but I can assure everybody that I'm going to continue to put in the work to be the best that I can be. I'm going to stay humble, keep God first and, with that, the best is yet to come."
Roger "Pit" Perron is a venerable boxing trainer from Brockton(Mass.) who now works with Mike and Rich Cappiello at their gym, Cappiello Brothers Boxing and Training.
Perron raved about Ward and predicts he will dominate the middleweight landscape well into the foreseeable future.
“Ward clearly sticks out in the divison,” said Perron, 75, who worked with International Boxing Hall of Famer Marvelous Marvin Hagler at the Petronelli Brothers Gym. “He had just a great performance his last time out. No other fighter is close to him.”
Ward may not actually be the "Son of God."
Nevertheless, Andre Ward is a spectacular pugilist whose “best is yet to come" and he will “be considered for these awards every year.”
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