That was an incredible fight, and I think we saw sort of grand finished product of Ward’s evolution. It was so interesting to listen to Lampley and Kellerman talk about what they were seeing–because they couldn’t quite put their finger on it. It was way too complex and technical, although at moments they were right about certain things, the big picture kind of eluded them. Because it is extremely subtle what Ward does.

Andre has been brought along perfectly, exposed to all the things he needed, like a prospect from the 1930′s would be. He was never rushed into something to make a payday. He can do EVERYTHING, and I first saw it in the Miranda fight…he can box, he can bully, he can roughhouse, he can fight inside. Even Lampley noticed it, “there’s a little Hopkins in Ward,” he said last night, and he’s right. They both make you fight their fight and prevent you from ever, ever fighting your fight.

What Ward did, right off the bat, was nothing short of spectacular—he convinced Chad Dawson that the jab wasn’t going to work. That’s what he did in round 1. I was surprised that Lederman and I think Larry Merchant gave Chad that round, I think that’s because they saw what they expected to see, not what was really happening.

And then of the course of the fight you saw the Andre I wrote about in Fighter’s Mind—the execution. Not by wrecking ball, but by punishing shots that just wore Chad down, made his life a living Hell, so that he quit. Its hard to see those shots, or understand just how punishing that attack can be. The uppercuts inside. The straight right to the body.

In short, the fight was a masterpiece, and Andre Ward is going to only get better. And bask in the glow of watching something truly special. Not a Tyson-esque wrecking ball, but the utter breakdown of the other fighter by a surgeon. And my hat, as always, is off to Virgil Hunter, his trainer, because he has such unerring aim for the other fighter’s weakness.