Introducing Larry Ward

In today’s internet age, the way a fighter markets himself has a huge bearing on the progression of his professional career. Promoters, television producers and venues need fighters that put butts in seats in order to do business. One fighter, yet to even turn professional, has proven to have the ability to do just that. Heavyweight Larry Ward expects to pack the Red Lion Hotel in his home city of Sacramento, California this Friday night, just as he has recently as an amateur.

Ward’s road to professional boxing is in many ways a familiar one, and in others quite unique. Like many eventual pugilists, Ward liked boxing as a kid, but had aspirations in other sports. “I always messed around with [boxing] as a kid, but never took any classes or anything,” recalls Ward. “I thought I was going to turn professional in football, but that didn’t pan out. I wanted to do something with my athletic background and started boxing.”

Ward found organized boxing while in the Army in the late 1990’s. “I fought in a couple smokers after I joined the military and I did really well in those little tournaments,” says Ward. “From there, I just continued boxing because I was pretty good at it. I got second place in my first tournament, and from there did some more smokers in the military and won all of them.”

When Ward left the Army he found toughman competitions in Colorado. His success in those tournaments convinced him that he may have a future as a fighter for pay. After finding work at a prison, Ward continued to box before moving to California in 2004. “When I finally came to California I didn’t want to start boxing right away, so I took some time off,” says Ward. “I eventually got back into it and started doing the battle of the badges. I asked for the toughest guy they had and ended up knocking him out. He wanted a rematch, so we did it again, and the same thing happened again.”

If you have heard the name Larry Ward, but you are not quite sure where, it may have been on a Bay Area newscast. On May 21, 2010 at the Radisson Hotel in Sacramento, Ward, who works at the California Medical Facility, a state prison in nearby Vacaville, took on Casey Johnson, a police officer from Oakland, California. The event was the initial promotion of Badge VS. Badge, which is run by respected trainer Gary Shurley and Tom Gaffney, and matches amateur boxers/law enforcement officers in bouts sanctioned by the International Association of Boxing.

According to most accounts, Ward was the clear victor when the fight was over, and indulged the pro-Johnson crowd, many of whom were likely off-duty Oakland PD, by returning their taunts with some gestures of his own. Soon thereafter, before the decision had even been read, a fracus broke out in the crowd. It was clear some of the out-of-the-ring activities involved Oakland PD and when the YouTube video surfaced many local news outlets picked up on the story.

While the situation that occurred is not the way a promoter or a fighter would like to get their name out there, that is the way it happened for Badge VS. Badge and Larry Ward. “It was bittersweet in a way,” says Ward. “It got publicity. Maybe not the right publicity, but either way, it got publicity.”

Now that some time has past, Ward seems to have put the event in the right perspective. “You get a whole bunch of guys in a crowded area and you mix booze and testosterone, of course occasionally you are going to get a couple guys trying to do too much,” says Ward. “At every event, you get guys shadowboxing, thinking they can do the same thing, and you mix alcohol with it, and they can get a little carried away with it.”

If there is another positive to take away from the incident for Ward, it would be that no matter where he fights in his professional career, he is likely to never enter a more unfriendly environment than he did that night in Sacramento. “That wasn’t even the only incident that night,” says Ward. “That just happened to be the one that was videotaped. There were a couple other incidents that night with me and a couple of the guys. It was just one of those nights when you walk into a hostile area, and you just want to leave in one piece. But if you are a fighter, then you love to fight. So for me, I didn’t have a problem with it. It just let me know it was going to be a fight pretty much all night.”

What most of the news outlets did not pick up on in their coverage of the incident, was that the bad blood may have started in the weeks leading up to the actual fight. Ward, and the promoters of Badge VS. Badge, have done what some professional promoters have only slowly begun to do in recent years, and that is build up fights and their fighters by using the internet, and more specifically sites like YouTube, as their primary vehicle.

Ward, who goes into character in his pre-fight videos, had angered supporters of the Johnson camp with some of his remarks in those YouTube-hosted segments. “The video is how the whole incident started with the Oakland crowd,” explains Ward. “They watched the videos and they didn’t appreciate what I had to say about their boy Casey Johnson and it kind of blew up.”

The videos helped make the event a box office success, as over 2,000 patrons jammed into the Radisson that night to see the Ward-Johnson main event. “I try to get things sparked up and get people a little upset,” says Ward. “I mean, anybody can get some gloves and box. But if you put a personality behind the gloves, you can go a long way. Like Kimbo Slice, he used to have all these YouTube videos, but when he started fighting he actually wasn’t that good. But if you are pretty good at fighting, and have a personality with it and a few videos, the sky’s the limit.”

Ward plans to continue shooting videos with his persona, “Cyco,” as he embarks on his journey into the professional ranks seeks bigger and better things. “It is good to get people wound up,” says Ward. “But me, I am just a regular dude. I have dreams and aspirations just like the next person, but I have got to pump myself up so I will be that guy that people love to hate. I am glad that it is turning out well for me and I keep winning and people keep hating to see me win. So far, it is just a dream come true for me. I am going to keep putting the videos out. I am going to keep talking stuff. I am going to keep dancing in the ring and hopefully one day I will be a household name. That is my main objective at the end, to be someone that everybody talks about.”

While Ward is turning pro in his own backyard, he is not getting the luxury of going up against fall guy this Friday night at the Red Lion Hotel. Promoter Nasser Niavaroni of Uppercut Promotions has matched Ward against Joshua Landers, a well regarded amateur formerly of the Bronx, New York that now trains at the famed Wild Card Gym in Hollywood, California.

“I have never had an easy fight either,” says Ward. “Every guy that I have fought was the best at his craft. In a way it is good, because I want to see if I really have it or if I don’t. So I want to be in with somebody that really has it. Somebody is going to be upset, and it is not going to be me. It is going to be a test of wills. I feel that this guy has never fought anybody like me, and I can’t say that I have fought anybody like him. So we are going to see what is going to happen.”

This Friday is the culmination of a lot of hard work and sacrifice for Larry Ward. The clock may not be on the side of the 34-year-old, but he feels everything has come together for a reason and at the right time. “I definitely wanted to turn pro when I came to California when I was 27, but I didn’t have enough confidence in myself at the time,” admits Ward. “So I figured if I had a couple more fights under my belt I could gain some confidence and then I would be ready. At this point I am very confident, so it might have taken a long road, but I am here now and I am ready to make the most of my opportunity.”

Mario Ortega Jr. can be reached at ortega15rds@lycos.com.