Getting Opponents Like Trying to ‘Pull Teeth,’ Andre Ward Says

---

OAKLAND, Calif. -- Undefeated WBA super middleweight champion Andre Ward (27-0, 14 KOs) has been inactive for 19 months. That streak ends on Saturday at the Oracle Arena, where he will meet Liverpool, England’s Paul Smith (35-5, 20 KOs).

It is the sixth hometown bout at Oracle for “S.O.G.” and represents Smith’s first trek out of the United Kingdom to fight in America. In the East Bay Area hidden by the 880 freeway wall, King’s Boxing Gym -- the facility which bred Ward into a gold medalist at the 2004 Olympics in Athens -- played host to the champion as he held court with the media on Tuesday, mere days before he returns to the ring. The bout will be broadcast live on BET television and Tidal.com at 10 p.m. ET/7 p.m. PT.

Ward’s WBA belt will not be on the line since the bout is set for a 172-pound catchweight. Regardless of championships, Ward is getting reacquainted with familiar fight-week feelings that demand peak performance to stave off defeat’s pain and disappointment.

“This is what it’s all about,” Ward told Sherdog.com. “I don’t care [about] the magnitude of the fight. No matter who you’re fighting, it should feel like this. I’m excited.”

Ward last went through fight-week routines in November 2013, when he bested then-undefeated No. 1 contender Edwin Rodriguez by unanimous decision in Southern California. However, Rodriguez’s failure to make weight rendered it a non-title affair. It was not the ideal way to continue Ward’s momentum after a marvelous 10th-round TKO of Chad Dawson the previous year, but it was a satisfactory manner for which the champion to rebound from a shoulder injury.

Legal disputes with former promoter Dan Goossen kept Ward out of the ring in 2014. Goossen died of complications from liver cancer in September. Following an out-of-court settlement in the wake of Goossen’s death, Ward’s free agency ended when he signed to hip-hop legend Jay Z’s Roc Nation Sports to kick off 2015. His long-awaited reentry to the ring may be anticipated by no one more than Ward himself.

Smith was last seen in the ring going the distance twice versus “King” Arthur Abraham for the WBO super middleweight title; however, “Real Gone Kid” failed to leave Germany with the championship in both instances. Ward defeated Abraham during his 2011 Ring Magazine “Fighter of the Year” stretch. The 31-year-old cited Smith’s willingness to travel and his persistence to break into the world-class title ranks after close performances against Abraham as the reasons this bout came to fruition.

Ward insists he banned the word “tune-up” fight from this camp’s vocabulary. Taking the scrap seriously is of his volition, and extra obligations associated with headlining the hometown show have not added any extra pressure.

“I’m used to this kind of pressure,” the Super Six World Boxing Classic tournament winner said. “It’s like waking up in the morning. It comes with it.”

The pressures outside the ring troubled Ward, so much so that he contemplated leaving his in-ring career behind while battling his previous promoter.

“I’ve got retirement speeches saved on my phone,” he said. “What I went through, that’s not what I signed up for when I signed up for boxing. Even though I knew it was part of the game, I didn’t sign up for that.”

Ward, however, refused to have his career end on someone else’s terms and saw retirement as a way to do it his way.

“I don’t know if I was right or wrong, but that was my thinking,” the San Francisco-born fighter said. “I’m glad I didn’t listen to me because I wouldn’t be here right now.”

There was nothing tangible that told Ward the dispute would ever end. He simply committed to supporting teammates and commentating for HBO to stay involved with the sport he loved, even as he was being torn away from it in a way he never imagined.

“I just believed that if I stay in the gym, continue to pay your dues, at some point, this is going to break and you need to be ready,” Ward said. “I had tough weeks where I wasn’t in the gym. I didn’t want to be anywhere near a gym.”

Ward never got far enough away to get out of shape. Once the call came that he would be fighting again, he claims to already have been in great shape. That commitment came from his overarching goal -- the one that attracted him to boxing in the first place -- to get the best fights possible and win them to inspire observers the way boxing inspired him two decades ago.

With all this time off, Ward promises a reenergizing performance for his career against Smith, a man to whom he is grateful because not many lined up to welcome him back to fisticuffs.

“It’s been like trying to pull teeth trying to get guys in the ring,” the pound-for-pound standout said. “It’s funny: When they kind of want to build a reputation on being fearless and build a reputation on being this monster, they’ll go that route, but when they are presented with a fight maybe they don’t want, they’ll get political.”

The inference is directed at undefeated pound-for-pound knockout artist Gennady Golovkin. The middleweight champion and Ward have been going back and forth publically on why terms for a compelling bout between the two cannot be reached. Ward claims his issue is Golovkin’s camp alleging that he is avoiding the challenge rather than acknowledging the idea that promoters want to time the fight into a big-money pay-per-view.

“I understand letting things build up and waiting for certain fights and different things like that, but it’s been rough trying to get guys in the ring, and all I can do is present myself, whether its at 168 or 175 [pounds] when that time comes, and just be available when those guys step up,” Ward said. “A pay-per-view is just about the right dance partner. That’s all I’m waiting on.”

Danny Acosta is a freelance writer that has contributed to FOX Sports and Maxim Magazine, among others. He can be heard weekly on the Sirius XM Fight Club for the “Acosta KO” segment (Sirius XM 92 Thursdays 5 p.m. ET/2 p.m. PT).