The Art Of Ward

Marshawn Lynch pulls up on Andre Ward for a sit-down between two guys from the same soil. North Oakland, Oakland Tech, and a whole lot of people who knew them before anyone else did. Marshawn gets into how he kept his family together through the fame when so many athletes lose theirs, the Seahawks contract talk in a locker room that got so heated he nearly put hands on his GM, and the lesson it taught him about leverage that he still uses on every deal.
Then it’s Beast Mode. The coaches who told a kid at Oakland Tech he was training for the league, the shoulder-pad sensors that clocked a single game at seven total car crashes, why he still can’t tell you what he was thinking on the Beast Quake run, and the 31 straight days of Seattle rain that welcomed him to the city that became home. He talks about Mama Lynch and the village that raised him, the day his mom refused to put him on medication, and walking away from football at Super Bowl 50 without telling his agent.
And he opens up about his father like he never has: the driving lesson his dad never showed up for, seven years without seeing him, and the call that came the day he was supposed to fly home and visit. Weeks before that call, Dre had met his father in person. They close on what every athlete needs to take care of on the way out, and on lifting up Chris Johnson following his diagnosis.

0:00 Intro
1:15 Staying Grounded and Keeping Family Close Through Fame
7:44 Never Buying Into the Fame
10:44 The First Contract Blowup and Stacking Leverage
17:25 Negotiating Under Pressure (Lessons From the Fight Game)
21:16 How a $10K Shoot Turns Into $25K
25:17 Giving Back and Turning Resources Into Income
27:41 The Media Narrative and Proving Them Wrong
30:12 Ad Break
32:32 Oakland Tech and Where “Beast Mode” Came From
38:02 The Running Back Mindset: Getting Through All 11
40:32 Seven Car Crashes a Game
42:42 The Stiff Arm, the Geometry, and the Beast Quake
48:44 Winning Over the 12s and Seattle
55:34 Mama Lynch and the Village
1:01:43 Growing Up Without His Dad
1:08:37 Seeing His Father Again
1:11:55 The Call, the Six-Hour Walk, and No Resentment
1:18:41 The Memories He Does Have
1:26:42 Why the Community Needs Fathers and Mentors
1:31:42 When Family Can’t Grow With You
1:43:31 Retiring at Super Bowl 50 and Life After Football
1:51:42 Body, Mind, and Money
1:57:57 Chris Johnson and the Message to Young Athletes
2:05:16 Getting Proactive About Your Health

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On this episode of HALL OF GAME, Andre Ward and Roy Jones Jr. are back to break down Ryan Garcia’s round 2 TKO win over Conor Benn, why big weight cuts aren’t a flex, and the difference between criticism and hate. Pitbull Cruz wants next, while Roy wants to see Ryan solve the Shakur Stevenson puzzle, and Dre explains why the Devin Haney rematch still matters.

Plus, Pitbull’s knockout of Nestor Bravo sparks a disagreement: was Bravo looking for a way out, or had he simply reached his level? Plus, Dre and Roy break down David Benavidez vs. Jai Opetaia and explain why Tyson Fury vs. Anthony Joshua belongs in front of the UK fans.

To cap off the discussion, Dre reflects on nine years of retirement as Terence Crawford faces pressure over Boots Ennis. Dre knows what it’s like to have your résumé questioned after you walk away. Roy explains why the competitive fire never leaves, and why talking back can pull a retired fighter into a fight he never intended to take.

0:00 – Intro & show rundown
1:32 – Isaac “Pitbull” Cruz demolishes Néstor Bravo
14:45 – Cruz calls out Ryan Garcia
19:59 – Ryan Garcia’s next move: Pitbull, Teo, Devin or Shakur?
25:58 – AD BREAK
27:06 – Ryan Garcia vs. Conor Benn breakdown
34:34 – Keeping a ‘championship mindset’
43:43 – AD BREAK
44:30 – Jai Opetaia stops Noel Mikaelian, Benavidez showdown looms
49:55 – Anthony Joshua vs. Tyson Fury finally set?
54:14 – Retirement talk: Ward’s 9-year anniversary & Terence Crawford
1:11:13 – Outro

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Joe Tessitore sits down with Andre Ward, his broadcast partner of thousands of hours and, as Dre puts it, a mentor and a brother.

The career is all here. Local news in Hartford, the ESPN call in late 2001 that put him next to Teddy Atlas on Friday Night Fights, the Emanuel Augustus fights he still calls flashes of genius, and why he never negotiates his own deals. He talks about getting pulled off Monday Night Football in the New York Post and not attaching emotion to a corporation, what actually separates a professional from a talent, and the Mike McQuade introduction that made a whole production room sit up straight.

And then April 20, 2019. Madison Square Garden, Crawford vs. Khan, and Tessitore collapsing on air from the top of the building. The EKG, the ambulance, the son riding with him, and the moment he told the doctor to take the IV out, handed his kid a wad of cash for an Uber, and walked back into the Garden sweating through his shirt with the hospital band still on to call Bud Crawford’s fight. Ninety minutes after the main event, one person was still waiting outside the green room to make sure he was okay. It was the champion.

00:00 – Intro: Meeting a broadcasting legend
04:38 – Origin story: his mother’s journey from Italy
11:08 – Young Joe: quiet childhood, his sister’s death
11:56 – His father and alcoholism
15:01 – Forgiveness and looking forward, not back
18:11 – Big Italian family, horse racing, cards
20:30 – “I loathe mediocrity”
21:42 – Chasing “magis” — the pursuit of more
26:28 – Saint Joseph and fatherhood as identity
29:52 – The football injury that changed everything
32:25 – Discovering “the voice”
35:19 – Survivor’s guilt and his sister’s death
39:37 – Business degree over communications
44:16 – Getting removed from Monday Night Football
45:57 – The 2002 ESPN call and boxing roots
51:13 – Uncle Mike the baker: talent vs. opportunity
1:04:45 – Crawford vs. Khan: the medical episode begins
1:09:25 – Hospital, IV, and walking out of the ER
1:14:28 – Calling his son John’s fake field goal
1:26:38 – Stripped down: “Who is Joe Tessitore?”

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Fourteen years after the fight that changed both their lives, Andre Ward sits down with “Bad” Chad Dawson and gets some things off his chest. Ward opens up about why he never wanted the fight, the apology he’s carried ever since, and what he knew about Dawson’s camp that he saved for the weigh-in. Dawson holds nothing back either: getting dropped in sparring two weeks out, who leaked it, why he’s “110% sure” Bernard Hopkins faked the shoulder injury, the Adonis Stevenson knockout, and the same referee who stopped both of his worst nights.

From gloves on his hands as a baby to signing his first pro contract in the gym without anyone reading it, the three-time world champion walks through a career built on fighting anyone, anywhere, and the price he paid for it: three years in Vegas after the losses and the long road back home. Plus a first-time reveal about why he really chased Antonio Tarver, his pick in the Keyshawn Davis vs Devin Haney debate, and sparring Jake Paul.

00:00 - Welcome & Reconnecting with Chad Dawson
03:23 - Andre Ward’s Reflection & Weight Class Regrets
05:49 - Adonis Stevenson Camp & Weigh-In Scuffle
08:13 - Press Conference Energy & Sparring Southpaws
11:45 - Growing Up in a Boxing Family & Turning Pro
18:15 - Glenn Johnson Reality Check & Style Identity
25:01 - Breaking Out: The 2007 Tomas Adamek Title Win
30:23 - Moving Camps to Vegas & Team Friction
36:38 - Vacating Titles & Fighting Antonio Tarver
41:16 - Chasing Big Names & Boxing Business Mistakes
48:41 - Breakdown: Modern Fighters & Style Matchups
51:44 - Facing Jean Pascal in Canada & Controversial Stoppage
55:16 - Bernard Hopkins Drama: Ring Toss & Mind Games
1:02:15 - The Aftermath of the B-Hop Fights
1:08:40 - Weight Cut Nightmares
1:14:20 - Reflection on Career Accomplishments & Hall of Fame Debates
1:18:05 - Current State of the Light Heavyweight Division
1:23:50 - Passing the Torch & Final Message to the Fans

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We’re BACK for PART 2 of THE ART OF WARD featuring Zab Judah. Zab kicks off by telling Andre Ward what the Cory Spinks fight week actually looked like: checking into the hotel under an alias and getting a death threat on the room phone anyway, armed security rotating outside his door through the night, and sending his conditioning coach out in street clothes to order the team’s food because he was certain somebody would try to poison it.

Then the run that defined the rest of his career. He lost the undisputed title to Carlos Baldomir, and Don King had him re-signing his contract that same night, because the IBF belt was the only thing left that could get him Floyd Mayweather. Zab makes his full case on that fight: the glove that touched the canvas and was never called a knockdown, the first five rounds, Roger Mayweather coming into the ring in the tenth and his own father walking in right behind him, the $8 million purse and the $350,000 he handed straight back in fines, and why the year they suspended him afterward hurt more than the loss.

Plus Miguel Cotto’s low blows on Puerto Rican Day weekend at the Garden, the Lucas Matthysse camp he built off a tape of Matthysse’s third professional fight, the three million dollars he refused to hand an investor, the accountants who ran through what was left, and the walk he took by himself to a Brooklyn hospital thirty days after his final fight that ended in emergency brain surgery.

0:00 – Intro: Fight week lockdown before Corey Spinks II
7:53 – The knockout & the Harlem Shake celebration
10:21 – Post-fight bond with Corey Spinks
15:57 – The Carlos Baldomir loss & re-signing with Don King
20:15 – Setting up the Floyd Mayweather superfight
23:13 – Fight week tension with Mayweather
27:06 – Breaking down Floyd’s style and the early rounds
30:25 – Controversial scoring & the suspension conspiracy
33:02 – The ring brawl breaks out
37:04 – Body shots, fatigue, and respect for Floyd
40:18 – Nevada fine, one-year suspension, moving forward
41:36 – Miguel Cotto war at MSG & the low blows
45:47 – When boxing became “just a job”
46:27 – Underestimating Lucas Matthysse & the mid-fight adjustment
52:10 – Becoming his own promoter and dealmaker
56:09 – Money problems and hard financial lessons
1:03:30 – Comeback fights and the Cletus Seldin stoppage
1:04:28 – Hospital scare and emergency brain surgery
1:11:10 – Recovery, reflection, and closing thoughts

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Zab Judah sits down with Andre Ward for a two-part conversation on a career that started at six years old and didn’t end until he was 41. The Brownsville-born six-time world champion takes Dre all the way back to the beginning: a mother and father who met in karate school, a house where you fought your own brothers for food and for who got the bike, the Golden Gloves chain snatched off his neck on the train, and the night his father woke him up in the middle of the night just to put him in front of Mike Tyson.

Part 1 is the climb and the first collapse. Duva pulled him out of the Golden Gloves at sixteen and put him on a plane to spar Pernell Whitaker, who didn’t know who he was for three days. At eighteen he was the co-main event on HBO. At fifteen and zero he took the Micky Ward fight everybody told him to turn down, and ended up in the corner telling his own father he thought his ribs were broken. Then Kostya Tszyu: undefeated, headlining Vegas for the first time, and it was over in two rounds. Zab tells all of it, the stool, the referee, the year they took from him, and why he still says he never got to go out on his shield.

Plus the recruitment that changed his career: Don King walking into Justin’s in New York with a bag of cash in the limo, the plane tickets to Florida that somehow didn’t exist for his two lawyers, the Statue of Liberty in the backyard, and the $250,000 in a Gucci bag and the green convertible Bentley he drove home himself because he wasn’t about to let anybody ship it.

0:00 – Welcome Zab Judah to The Art of Ward
3:26 – Combat Family Roots & Growing Up with 14 Siblings
6:01 – Brooklyn Amateur Days & High School Survival
9:52 – Life in the Brownsville Projects
11:09 – Meeting Mike Tyson at Age 8
13:07 – Tyson’s Highs, Lows, and Wisdom
21:26 – AD BREAK
22:51 – Golden Gloves Champion & NYC vs. Upstate Mentality
26:26 – 1996 Olympic Trials & Linking Up with Floyd Mayweather
29:12 – Turning Pro & Sparring with Pernell Whitaker
33:24 – Tyson Undercards & the Mickey Ward War
36:55 – First Title Win & Living Large as Champ
39:44 – The Kostya Tszyu Fight & Aftermath
44:07 – Throwing the Chair & Dealing with the Fallout
52:39 – Second World Title & First Deal with Don King
55:34 – Signing with Don King in Florida (the Bentley Bonus)
1:07:55 – The Corey Spinks Fights & Becoming Undisputed Champ in St. Louis
1:13:37 – Chaos in the Corner (Part 1 Ends)

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Andre Ward & Roy Jones Jr are BACK after a wild weekend of boxing. Errol Spence Jr. came back after three years away, flew to Australia to fight Tim Tszyu in his own backyard, went the distance, and then walked away from the sport for good. The internet decided he looked shot. Dre and Roy see it completely differently, and Roy has a message for everybody with an opinion: if you never told him when to start, you don’t get to tell him when to stop.

Plus Stephen Fulton misses weight again and comes home from Australia with no check, Edgar Berlanga climbs off the canvas to save his night at the Garden, and Roy tells young fighters exactly what happens when you let a promoter put words in your mouth.

00:00 – Intro
00:23 – Weekend Recap: Spence Returns, Charlo & Fulton Fall Out
03:54 – Andre Ward Gets Emotional on Chad Dawson
18:08 – Hackett vs. Derevyanchenko & Berlanga Stops Butler
22:07 – Stephen Fulton’s Weight Problem, Again
29:54 – Errol Spence vs. Tim Tszyu Breakdown
44:14 – AJ, Fury & Errol Spence’s Legacy

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Fresh off his 2026 International Boxing Hall of Fame induction, Antonio “The Magic Man” Tarver sits down with Andre Ward and takes him from Ivy Lane in Orlando to Canastota: raised by a single mom with three sisters, put in the ring at nine as a punishment at the Boys and Girls Club, and the rock bottom at 18 that ended in drug rehab, where he was telling anyone who’d listen that he was going to the Olympics.

Tarver gets into the stories only he can tell: watching Roy Jones get robbed in Seoul and getting up off the couch to run, captaining the ’96 Olympic team that consisted of a young Floyd Mayweather and Zab Judah, turning pro at 27 with not one promoter or manager calling, fighting four rounds on a jaw broken in two places, and the three-year campaign that ended with “You got any excuses tonight, Roy?” and the punch heard around the world.

Plus the Bernard Hopkins fight he says deserves an asterisk, being Al Haymon’s first fighter alongside Vernon Forrest, playing Mason Dixon in Rocky Balboa, and finally getting his flowers.

0:00 – Welcoming Antonio Tarver, Newly Crowned Hall of Famer
0:23 – Induction Weekend & Honoring His Mom and Trainer
2:29 – Growing Up in Orlando with a Single Mom
6:11 – Starting Boxing at 9 at the Boys & Girls Club
7:24 – Leaving Boxing for Other Sports, Moving Out of the Inner City
10:26 – Depression, Cocaine, and Hitting Rock Bottom
11:41 – Watching Roy Jones Jr. “Robbed” at the 1988 Olympics
15:33 – Deciding to Wait for Atlanta 1996
17:50 – ’96 Team Captain: Mentoring Floyd Mayweather & Zab Judah
20:44 – Bronze Medal at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics
22:46 – Turning Pro with No Promoters Calling
27:53 – First Loss vs. Eric Harding
29:54 – Turning the Tide and Knocking Out Harding with a Broken Jaw
33:05 – The Years-Long Campaign to Fight Roy Jones Jr.
35:12 – The Infamous Post-Fight Press Conference Callout
44:39 – Breaking Down Roy Jones Fight I (2003)
48:45 – The Controversial Decision
49:31 – Fighting for the Rematch
53:18 – Training Camp for the Rematch
55:41 – “You Got Any Excuses Tonight, Roy?”
56:14 – The Knockout Heard Around the World
1:00:45 – Life After the Knockout
1:05:47 – Al Haymon and the Business Side of Boxing
1:07:20 – The Trilogy Fight in Tampa
1:19:15 – The Bernard Hopkins Fight and Feeling Off
1:28:16 – Owning His Lane and His Story
1:30:38 – Final Lessons and Closing Thoughts

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Jermall Charlo sits down with Andre Ward in Houston for his first real conversation in years, just as his comeback fight on the Tim Tszyu/Errol Spence card in Australia is around the corner. The two-time world champion and one half of Lions Only takes Dre back to the beginning: a two-parent household in H-Town, fighting on the same amateur card as his own father, the ingrown toenail that cost him the 2008 Olympics, and why he turned pro without ever signing a contract with anyone.

Jermall gets into the stories only he can tell: jumping the gate to introduce himself to Al Haymon and the handshake that’s lasted 20 years, the mystery package sent to his room the night before his first world title fight, the divorce that took his kids and nearly took him, and the truth about turning down the Canelo fight in 2023 and watching his twin brother take it instead. Plus the Julian Williams counter he drilled every single day of camp, life as “the other twin,” and why at 36 he’s still in love with boxing.

00:00 Intro – Welcoming Jermall Charlo in Houston
01:44 Body at 36
02:26 Pushing each other with Jermell
03:38 Early years in Houston, family life
04:35 Amateur days, fighting on his dad’s card
06:03 Twin dynamic – growing up as Jermall & Jermell
08:16 From other sports to realizing boxing was “the thing”
09:41 Early trainers & the amateur circuit
11:35 Twin life, differences inside & outside the ring
16:03 Missing the 2008 Olympics – injury & surgery
17:21 Turning pro & staying self-made
18:33 Meeting Al Haymon
23:04 2015 – Winning his first title
26:20 AD BREAK
27:07 Life as a champion & the start of his faith journey
29:55 Divorce, rock bottom & hitting his lowest point
34:44 Full surrender – his testimony
47:44 Julian Williams fight – the real tension
52:03 Life after the win – spending, business side
54:14 Two-year layoff & comeback vs. Benavidez
55:42 Scouting opponents & in-ring adjustments
56:42 The 2023 Canelo opportunity – why he passed it to Jermell
1:00:22 Watching his brother take on Canelo
1:01:23 Motivation for the Benavidez rematch
1:01:55 Identity, legacy & the pressure of “being the lion”
1:05:03 What’s next – real estate, ministry, business
1:06:53 Closing thoughts & outro

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Andre Ward and Roy Jones Jr. are back with a new edition of HALL OF GAME, and they’re going straight at the fight everybody just watched: Jaron “Boots” Ennis stopping Xander Zayas in the 7th round at Barclays. Boots broke Zayas down to the body, but the Hall of Fame duo don’t see the third round firefight the same way. Roy calls it going to sleep, Dre calls it an exchange, and they go back and forth on whether it’s a real flaw or just the cost of having that much in the bag.

From there it’s the stoppage everyone’s arguing about: should Zayas’ corner have waved it off in the fifth to save him the punishment? Did he quit, or did he show enough? Roy and Dre get into the difference between quitting and getting beat and the mental side of prizefighting.

Then they look ahead: what’s actually next for Boots, chase the Vergil Ortiz fight, or Fundora? Plus shout-outs to Emiliano Vargas, Ben Whittaker, and Jose Valenzuela avenging his loss to Edwin de la Santos.

0:00 Intro
0:46 Setting the scene: Zayas vs. Boots at Barclays Center
1:36 First reactions: fight, atmosphere, stoppage
2:07 Body shots that set up the finish
4:01 Round 1 power and the Round 3 wobble
7:05 Is Boots’ “defensive lapse” overblown?
9:11 Ad break
10:31 Zayas’ round 3 strategy debated
12:57 Boots’ defense, standards, and grading his own performance
18:19 Ward’s “mental letdown” theory
22:07 The “bag of stuff” theory & lack of elite competition
37:08 Setting up the late rounds
38:33 Round 5 knockdown breakdown
39:45 Should the corner have stopped it?
44:18 Round 7 stoppage and the corner look
46:28 Did Zayas quit? The big debate
51:18 Where Zayas goes from here
53:51 What’s next for Boots Ennis
56:56 Shoutouts: Vargas Jr., Whittaker, Valenzuela
1:01:16 Roy Jones Jr.’s award shoutout
1:01:34 Outro

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