Biography

Andre Michael Ward (born February 23, 1984) is an American former professional boxer who competed from 2004 to 2017. He retired with an undefeated record and held multiple world championships in two weight classes, including unified super middleweight titles between 2009 and 2015, and unified light heavyweight titles between 2016 and 2017.

During his reign as light heavyweight champion, Ward was ranked as the world's best active boxer, pound for pound, by The Ring magazine and the Transnational Boxing Rankings Board (TBRB), as well as the world's best active boxer in the division by The Ring, the TBRB, and BoxRec. As of August 2024, BoxRec ranks Ward as the 67th greatest boxer of all time, pound for pound. In 2024, ESPN ranked him as the 7th greatest men's boxer of the 21st century.

As an amateur boxer, Ward won the light heavyweight gold medal at the 2004 Olympics and turned professional later that year. He rose to worldwide prominence upon entering the Super Six World Boxing Classic tournament in 2009, where he won the World Boxing Association (WBA) super middleweight title (Super version) from Mikkel Kessler in the opening group stage. In 2011, Ward defeated World Boxing Council (WBC) champion Carl Froch in the tournament final to unify the titles, as well as winning the vacant Ring magazine and lineal titles. That same year, Ward was named Fighter of the Year by The Ring and the Boxing Writers' Association of America.

In 2016, following a long period of sporadic in-ring activity, Ward moved up to light heavyweight and won the WBA (Undisputed version), International Boxing Federation (IBF) and World Boxing Organization (WBO) titles from then-undefeated Sergey Kovalev. This earned Ward the Comeback of the Year award by The Ring. He successfully defended his titles in a rematch against Kovalev a year later, after which he retired from boxing. Ward was inducted into the International Boxing Hall of Fame as part of the Class of 2021, his first year of eligibility.