Lowell Cohn: Andre Ward putting the ‘class’ back in weight class

Andre Ward has more guts than Floyd Mayweather Jr.

Ward is willing to take a risk, to fight guys who stand a chance. To fight Mayweather, who wants a sure thing, who wants to retire undefeated, an opponent has to be half dead.

Ward, an East Bay resident, is relevant because when he fights Sullivan Barrera on Saturday night at Oracle Arena he will make his debut as a light heavyweight. That means he is taking a chance by moving up from super middleweight, 168 pounds. He is taking a risk, demonstrating his courage and pride and character to the world. Things Mayweather, an all-time great fighter, refuses to do.

I know Ward. Sort of. We have appeared on television together, and before we go on, we sit in the Green Room and talk boxing and other sports. He speaks softly, makes eye contact, answers every question, asks about me or anyone else in the room and never acts like a star or wants us to treat him like a star. He is Andre, good guy, guy who grew up in Oakland, guy who happens to practice an unusual profession. He is God-fearing and polite and overwhelmingly likable.

He knows how good he is. He was an Olympic gold medalist and is among the best boxers in the world. He knows you know how good he is. All that is understood. And unstated.

And now he’s taking the chance of his life.

A little background. Ward has fought in a made-up division, an ersatz division. What in the world is super middleweight? It didn’t exist until 1967, was briefly called junior light heavy, was a late entry into boxing where it got shoehorned between middle (160) and light heavy (175).

To my way of thinking, there never was a need for super middle. A fighter could move down from 168 to 160 by spitting a few times. Sugar Ray Robinson and Jake LaMotta and Marvin Hagler fought as middleweights, no bloating to super middle, a division with no tradition and barely any following.

So Andre Ward, great talent that he is, fought in the wrong weight class. And now he’s correcting that, moving into one of the eight essential boxing divisions. If you don’t know what they are, look them up. Any division including the words “super” or “junior” doesn’t count and is kind of embarrassing.

This is what Ward does well. He is a skillful boxer. I want to use the word gorgeous. He comes toward an opponent behind a beautiful jab and he has every punch in the lexicon, every combination. And he is hard to hit. Avoids trouble. He is there, then he isn’t there. He is slick but he’s also aggressive, and opponents soon realize they are competing at a level they never knew existed.

That’s how special Ward is.

I don’t think he hits hard. This is my opinion, and I apologize to Ward for grading him down in this area. He is undefeated in 28 fights, but has knocked out only 15. A good ratio, not a great ratio. Not a ratio that causes fear in the other guy.

When someone moves up from super middle to light heavy, he needs a big punch. This is a big man’s division. This is a division with big men who punch big. Knock you out big. A good fighter - Ward - needs enough big punch to keep opponents off him and to back them up and hurt them.

Amazing how brutal boxing sounds when you write about it. It is so fundamental, so basic, so simple to comprehend. That’s why I love it.

I’m going to list some great light heavies. You may have heard of them. I hope you’ve heard of some.

In my youth, Archie Moore was the best light heavy, the champion, one of the elite fighters on Earth at any weight. They called him the Old Mongoose because he was clever and could seem lazy and uninvolved, and then he’d spring at you and knock you silly. He had 132 KOs in 186 fights. Serious puncher. Serious finisher.

Could Andre Ward beat Archie Moore?

Moore lost a heavyweight championship fight to Rocky Marciano, but knocked Marciano down with a lightning right cross. Could Ward knock down Rocky Marciano?

Ezzard Charles was a better light heavy than Moore, dominated Moore when they fought. Charles also was heavyweight champion. Forget light heavies, Charles probably was among the top 10 heavyweights who ever lived.

Could Andre Ward beat Ezzard Charles?

Then there was Billy Conn, the Pittsburgh Kid. Did not hit hard. purely a boxer. But on June 18, 1941, in the Polo Grounds he fought Joe Louis for the heavyweight title. After 12 rounds of the 15-round fight, Conn was ahead on two scorecards and tied on the third.

He was about to upset Louis, but in the 13th round he got cocky, went for the knockout - he didn’t have to. He slugged it out with Louis, something he should have avoided, and got knocked out in one of the best fights ever.

Could Andre Ward dominate Joe Louis?

Maybe Ward could have beaten light heavies like Conn and Moore and Charles, add in Bob Foster and Harold Johnson and Jose Torres. I’m not saying he couldn’t. I’m saying that from now on, he gets judged by the strictest standards, the highest standards.

To his eternal credit.

For more on the world of sports in general and the Bay Area in particular, go to the Cohn Zohn at cohn.blogs.pressdemocrat.com. You can reach Staff Columnist Lowell Cohn at lowell.cohn@pressdemocrat.com.