"Abraham is a very strong fighter and he doesn't throw a high volume of punches. I don't know if it's because of his conditioning. He says he leaves it all in the ring and in his fight with Carl Froch, he left it all in the ring. Rest assured, I'm going to be prepared and bring it. Once again, we should have a good fight because I'm not ready to go home and he doesn't want to go home. Stylistically, I think you're going to see the same Arthur Abraham," stated super middleweight champion Andre Ward as he talked about his next upcoming showdown with Arthur Abraham in the Super Six tournament. Check it out!
JA: Has the Super Six tournament tournament reached your expectations?
AW: It's hard to say because I didn't have any expectations going into the tournament. I can't get caught up in the hoopla that surrounds a tournament of this magnitude. My whole thing was I'm one of six other top Super Middleweights in the world and I want my hand to be raised at the end. I'm not quite sure what my expectations were because this is something that has never been done before, but now that I'm in the semi-finals and there's four guys left, and seeing what the tournament has done as a whole for the sport of boxing and to be apart of something special, I'm blessed. The tournament isn't over yet so the best is yet to come.
JA: How has the tournament helped the marketing and the branding of you as a professional fighter? For maybe people not knowing you heading into the tournament, would you say it helped you with people that may be casual boxing fans?
AW: Absolutely. It brought my stock and my notoriety up a lot. I was recently on vacation in the Western Caribbean and we made a stop in Bales and the people were coming up to me rooting for me, and for people to be watching the Super Six outside of the States, it shows the magnitude on the tournament has had on the sport of boxing.
JA: What intrigued you about the Super Six tournament?
AW: I kind of fell into it. After my fight with Miranda, my team came up to me and told me that Showtime was looking to do a two or three fight deal that turned into the tournament. After I got more details about the tournament and that there was going to be five other guys involved, at first, I didn't think it was going to come across because I didn't think you could get a guy like Kessler or Abraham to sign up to a lengthy tournament like this. After we did our research and found out what the details were, I realized this was the real deal.
JA: Was it intriguing to you going up against the top Super Middleweights in the world and to see how you fair against the best in the world?
AW: Absolutely. Every young fighter, every competitor wants to fight the best. Being in the Super Six, there's no getting around it. The contracts are signed and everyone knows who they're going to be fighting. This was something that I felt I was ready for and I was excited about the opportunity and still am excited about the tournament. There is still a lot of work to be done and the goal from day one till now is to be the last man standing. If I continue to stay focused, I believe that's going to happen.
JA: Your last fight against Sakio Bika was a dominating performance. Going into the fight, did you feel you were going to dominate Sakio?
AW: I watched Sakio for many years and studied his style. I thought that one day we were going to fight and it did happen. Going into the fight, I knew it was going to be a rough fight and there's two ways to fight a guy like that; you could be either on the outside and be at the end of those wide shots or be inside. It was an ugly fight and I wasn't pleased with my performance personally. At the end of the day, I was happy that we did win ugly and to know that we can win ugly means a lot.
JA: You've gone 12 rounds in your last two fights. Are you pleased with the work that you've been getting in the ring and to know that you can go 12 rounds consecutively is not a problem for you?
AW: Absolutely. You always want to get a knockout and it's no secret that fighters don't get paid by the hour, so the earlier the night, the better. But at the same time, like you mentioned, I'm pleased with going the rounds because when you get to a certain point in the game, you're not going to knock every fighter out. You don't know what type of knockout artist you are until you fight the best. I know that you can knock out fighters in sensational fashion when you're up-and-coming. When you fight the elite fighters in the game, that's when you know what type of knockout power you really have. If you have noticed in this tournament, there is nothing but elite fighters and there have been only a few stoppages out of all of the fights that have taken place. That shows you who the knockout puncher is and who's not.
JA: Your next fight is against Arthur Abraham. What do you know about him?
AW: Abraham is a very strong fighter and he doesn't throw a high volume of punches. I don't know if it's because of his conditioning. He says he leaves it all in the ring and in his fight with Carl Froch, he left it all in the ring. Rest assured, I'm going to be prepared and bring it. Once again, we should have a good fight because I'm not ready to go home and he doesn't want to go home. Stylistically, I think you're going to see the same Arthur Abraham.
JA: Do you have to change your style going into a fight or do you stay consistent with what your trying to do?
AW: I have to do what I have to do and there are certain adjustments that need to be made. The beauty about fighting at a high level is we've seen a lot of these fighters fight for years. We're going to do our homework, but we know what to expect from the fighters. Being in the tournament, I saw Arthur Abrahams fight up close and personal; I saw Carl Froch's last fight up close and personal. Going into the fight with Abraham, we'e going to have a specific game plan going into the fight. It's about turning it on and getting the job done when the lights turn on.
JA: Obviously winning the Super Six tournament is your number one goal for 2012. Do you have any goals for 2011?
AW: I want my stock to continue to rise and I want to prove that I'm the best super middleweight in the World and you don't do that by talking. You do it by fighting one fight at a time, fight after fight, year after year, and the goal right now is to have my hand raised at the end of this tournament. Then we will sit down as a team to see what's next. To win this tournament and to fight the undefeated Super Middleweight champion of the world, Lucian Bute, are on my short term goals.
JA: Are you where you want to be in your career right now?
AW: I can't be upset at all with where I'm at in my career and what we've accomplished. I owe a lot of credit to my team and to Showtime for putting this tournament together and allowing me in the tournament to showcase my talents. Like I said before, I have a lot more work to be done as a fighter, but without this opportunity, you can't show what you got. Without this tournament I wouldn't have gotten the type of fights back-back-back with Kessler or Allan Green, and my upcoming fight with Abraham. I'm pleased at where I'm at right now in my career.
JA: Is 168 easy for you to make?
AW: I believe 168 is the perfect weight for me. I don't have to cut weight or do anything drastic except for good hard training. I definitely want to move up in weight at some point. I don't know when. At one point, I want to move up to 175 and before my career is over, I could see myself fighting at cruiserweight or heavyweight one time for the right fight. You look at Roy Jones, who put on 25 pounds for the right fight against John Ruiz. Now I don't know how Roy would have done with the Klitschkos, but he did it against Ruiz and that was the right fight for him and it would have been the perfect ending for him to ride off into the sunset.
JA: Did you watch the Hopkins-Pascal fight? If so, what were your thoughts on the fight?
AW: I didn't score the fight, but I watched it. With that being said, it was a very difficult fight to score. You can make an argument for both guys, but at the end of the day, it was a tough fight to score. You have to give Pascal credit for scoring the knockdowns and for going up against a tough fighter in Bernard. You also have to give Bernard credit for going to into hostile territory in Quebec, getting knocked down early in the fight, and coming back. A lot of guys would have gotten discouraged with the knockdowns early in the fight, but Bernard did the opposite. It fired him up. I would love to see a second fight, just like everyone else.
JA: Can you tell us about the website that you have up Andre?
AW: www.andresogward.com is a site where my fans can come and leave questions for me. It's a site where the fans can see what's been going on with me. We are in the process of redesigning the site and the new layout should be up shortly. www.andresogward.com is a site where you can buy shirts, merchandise, and look at my blog.
JA: Is there anything that you would like to say in closing Andre?
AW: I just appreciate the interview bro and I appreciate talking to you as always. We're going to have a great year in 2011.