Ward, stronger and quicker than Kessler, earns WBA title and respect

NOW do you believe Andre Ward isn’t a willowy finesse fighter? After he battered Mikkel Kessler with his fists, and a few times, his noggin, Ward surely convinced the naysayers (a word Ward used afterward) that he’s tough enough to win the Super Six Tournament.

He certainly convinced the Showtime audience and the Oracle Arena crowd announced at 10,227, taking Kessler’s WBA championship from him Saturday by technical decision after wounds officially initiated by head butts rendered Kessler unable to continue in the 11th round of the super-middleweight bout. Ward (21-0, 13 knockouts) was leading 98-92 on two scorecards and 97-93 on the other and was declared the winner.

But it took a bit of equivocating to award Kessler any of the rounds. He was soundly beaten. “I don’t know if I lost a whole round,” Ward said accurately.

Kessler, who began looking battered in the third and fourth rounds, fairly graciously gave Ward his due. “He was quicker than I expected,” Kessler said when I asked whether Ward’s show of power had surprised him. And Ward’s ability to thwart Kessler’s offense drew praise, sort of. “He ruined my style,” Kessler said after landing few power punches and fewer combinations.

But Kessler and promoter Wilfried Sauerland felt Ward was allowed to hold too much and that the  head-butting was excessive. “It was unfair with the holding and the hitting,” Kessler said, adding that he felt the head butts were intentional.

Whatever. Ward dominated the bout from the outset, beating Kessler (42-2) to the punch and not allowing the Dane to establish his rhythm.

Ward won the first four rounds. By the fourth, after landing a big right and a combination punctuated by a left uppercut, Ward was measuring Kessler, not to mention dominating him. That was the round Kessler wound up with a big mouse under his right eye.

It was pretty obvious Ward was on his way to victory, and the head butts had little to do with it. “He’s everything they said he was,” Ward said of Kessler, “but we were better tonight.”

The holding was a more valid complaint, but it resulted primarily from Ward’s desire to fight inside, rather than a need to tie up Kessler. It was an important part of the strategy, as Kessler is primarily an outside fighter with a great jab.

“Most important: keeping Kessler off-balance,” Ward said. “The defense took care of itself.”

Ward executed the game plan “from A to Z,” said trainer Virgil Hunter, adding that Ward’s emphatic start was crucial. “He’s a front-runner when he’s pushed the issue,” Hunter said of Kessler, but “I knew he had never been cracked.”