By Norm Frauenheim-
LAS VEGAS – Andre Ward has done nothing but win for as long as just about anybody can remember. In fact, it’s been so long since a Ward loss that it takes a little research – or maybe an archaeologist – to figure out exactly when it happened. How it happened.
For a while, Ward’s loss happened he was 13 years old to Ernie Gonzales, who went on to fight to 29 pro bouts as Jesus. After some checking through amateur records, however, that has been corrected. The last loss, also as a 13-year-old, was in fact to John Revish, a former Louisiana junior-welterweight, Ward said.
Amateur records can sometimes as hard to verify as UFO sightings. But you get the idea. Ward’s combined record, pro and amateur, is otherworldly. Over almost two decades, the 32-year-old light-heavyweight hasn’t lost.
The 2004 Olympic gold medalist says he is 125-5 as an amateur. Add that to the 30-0 pro mark he’ll risk Saturday night against Sergey Kovalev at T-Mobil Arena in an HBO pay-per-view bout, and he is 155-5 as a fighter. Modern translation: He’s an adult who doesn’t lose, perhaps because of what he learned against Revish and Gonzalez. Lessons learned as a kid have stayed with Ward the mature fighter. To this day, he and his trainer, Virgil Hunter, recalls the defeats as though they happened yesterday.
“I remember how it felt and I remember telling myself that I won’t let it happen again,’’ Ward said Thursday before a formal news conference at the MGM Grand.
There’s an ongoing guessing game that Kovalev’s long powerful right will do enough damage to pound out a memory that Ward has so agilely, so smartly eluded for so very long. But don’t bet on it.
Gonzales, for one, wouldn’t. The former Phoenix fighter picks Ward to win by unanimous decision. These days, Gonzales, a one-time prospect who went 27-2 with 14 KOs as a middleweight, works with kids in a Houston gym when he isn’t driving a truck to support his family, which includes two sons, 9 and 5. He has watched Ward ever since he won a split decision over him in a controversial bout in Ontario, Calif., a few generations ago.
“I didn’t know who he was then, but I had begun to hear about him,’’ said Gonzales, who says the bout was fought at 139 pounds. “To get to Ward, I had to beat Timothy Bradley.’’
Yeah, that Timothy Bradley.
“Hey, I beat everybody,’’ said Gonzales, whose pro career ended in a crushing knockout loss to Adonis Stevenson in 2012 in Montreal.
Gonzales recalls winning a 3-2 decision. Instead of computer scoring, the bout he said was determined by five ringside judges. To this day, Ward and his trainer, Virgil Hunter, dispute the loss, almost as if it is as controversial today as it was a couple of decades ago.
“Ernie’s mom was one of the judges,’’ Hunter said Thursday.
But Gonzales remembers something else. He recalls a winning strategy. He said Ward was just learning how to use a counter punch.
“I kept my left hand out there and moved my back foot backwards, almost a full foot back,’’ Gonzales said. “He just couldn’t get to to me. But what I remember mostly is that he was a real nice guy. After the fight, we ran into each at the concession stand and he bought me a hot dog.’’
Gonzales looks at today’s Ward and sees a fighter who he believes can thoroughly frustrate Kovalev.
“To me, he’s a lot like Floyd Mayweather,’’ said Gonzales, who was a Mayweather sparring partner for Mayweather’s victory over Robert Guerrero in May, 2013. “It’s just really hard to predict what he’s going to do.’’
It’s only easy to predict that he won’t forget.