Sharkie’s Machine
By Frank Gonzalez Jr.
May 16, 2009
“Andre Ward Passed the Test against
Edison Miranda”
Saturday night at the Oracle Arena
in Oakland, Super-Middleweight Prospect, turned contender, Andre Ward (19-0, 12
KO’s) broke his cherry taking on ‘his first real test’ against the ferocious
puncher, Edison “Pantera” Miranda (32-4, 28 KO’s).
Miranda only had two good rounds,
the first and second. Miranda landing some good shots, one that caused a cut
over Ward’s left eye. It looked like Miranda was going to make it an uphill
battle for Ward but from rounds three through twelve, Miranda was neutralized by
the slicker, faster Ward. Miranda’s sloppy, uninspired performance could see his
stock plummet as fast as Ward’s stock has risen.
Where Miranda didn’t, Ward made
adjustments. Ward stepped up his pace and used good footwork and timing to score
at will and frustrating Miranda, who was rarely able to land anything clean on
account of the mobility and ring generalship of Andre Ward. Ward showed great
footwork and quality skills can cancel an opponent’s ruthless and even toothless
aggression in the ring. This is what boxing is all about. The art of hitting
without being hit.
From round three on, this was a
blowout, with Ward beating Miranda to the punch all night. Ward was aggressive
in spots by smothering Miranda on the inside and then tying him up. Miranda did
not make adjustments and was reduced to a one dimensional, right handed fighter.
Late in the fight, Miranda was pawing with his jab, clearly trying to set up his
right. Ward wasn’t buying it. Ward dictated the tempo of the contest and never
allowed Miranda to get into any kind of functional rhythm.
There were some dirty tactics early
on with Miranda being warned for a head butt and a couple of low blows. Ward was
warned for holding… maybe twice. Ward did most of the punching and followed up
with debilitating clinches that reminded me of the manner with which Ricky
Hatton neutralized Kostya Tszyu a few years ago; by hitting, then holding and
frustrating his opponent to madness. There were no knockdowns but Andre Ward
beat Miranda to the punch and out boxed Miranda effectively for at least ten of
twelve rounds.
As disappointing as this result was
for Edison, this isn’t the end for Pantera Miranda. At 28, he’s still a young
man. He’s still has power but could use some fine tuning on defense and footwork
in particular. He’d do well to add new dimensions to his offensive approach and
be able to change gears when plan A begs for a plan B. Miranda is a classic
brawler and boxing needs a good share of brawlers out there to keep the
technical boxer’s on their toes. One good punch can end any fight. Miranda needs
to work on having more options to deliver that punch. And it don’t always have
to be a right…it could be a left hook. Look how much success it brought to Andre
Ward Saturday night. You can’t always win by knockout.
Miranda seems to have problems with
weight between fights and would probably be stronger at a higher weight class.
I’d like to see him fight guys like Glen Johnson, Hugo Garay or B Hop! Styles
make fights and Miranda’s seek and destroy style is always exciting even when he
loses because there’s always the chance that he might catch a guy and put him
down and out at any moment. Boxing needs macho men like Edison Pantera Miranda.
Congratulations to Andre Ward. This
performance puts him front and center in the 168 pound division, where he is now
the mandatory challenger for WBC titlist, Carl Froch (25-0, 20 KO’s).
In Froch’s last fight against
Jermain Taylor, Froch had to be losing on the scorecards when Taylor’s stamina
faded in the final round and Froch caught him with power punches in the corner
ropes that saw Taylor go down in the exact manner that Kelly Pavlik dropped him
before. Froch showed resilience, hung in there till the end with Taylor and won
by KO 12.
Froch is not fancy but he has good
power and has shown he can take a punch. Andre Ward showed good qualities
against Edison Miranda but big power was not one of them. To his credit, Ward
has fast reflexes, good stamina, nice footwork and decent enough pop in his
shots to give Froch all he can handle. Froch was mostly out boxed by the smaller
Taylor and if it weren’t for Taylor’s lack of stamina when it mattered most,
Froch would likely had lost on points, since Taylor scored a knockdown in the
early rounds.
Ward is bigger and stronger than
Taylor and he’s a better ‘boxer’ than Froch. Ward will be a much tougher
opponent for Froch than Taylor was.
Andre Ward’s handlers should waste
no time arranging a showdown with Froch. Both are undefeated and both have
assets that make them dangerous. This is what the fans want to see, the top guys
fighting each other.
Can Carl Froch’s power and
durability beat Andre Ward’s top notch boxing skills?
Hopefully, time will tell.
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5-2-2009
