Image via WikipediaAndre Ward felt like the road team in his home state when he walked to the open-air ring amid a chorus of boos while hundreds of Armenians waved red-blue-and-orange flags.
Ward took the abuse and smiled. Arthur Abraham would have needed a white flag to stop Ward from steamrolling him on the way to the Super Six tournament final.
Ward overwhelmed Abraham with power and speed in nearly every round of an unanimous decision victory Saturday night, defending his WBA super middleweight title in the Super Six semifinals.
Ward (24-0, 13 KOs), the Olympic gold medalist from Oakland, Calif., put on another clinic in patient, tactical boxing while dismantling Abraham (32-3), the Armenian-born German who had a perfect record until losing three straight in the Super Six.
The Los Angeles area’s sizable Armenian population turned out in force for Abraham, but Ward had answers for all of them.
“We’re going to the final, baby,” Ward said. “Arthur is strong, and he’s a hard hitter, (but) we showed that we can win in a way other than our original game plan.”
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