Don't Give Haters Too Much Credit! - Andre Ward

Yeah, the next 10 rounds you started to take over and you were solving the riddle. It's interesting the difference in power punchers. Like there's levels of power punchers. We always thought of him as this power puncher. Like he's the crusher, he knocked a lot of people out. But then there's like a Julian Jackson level. There's a snap. So people just go step and fall over. George Foreman. Yes. Like George could kill you. Yes. The Joe Frazier fight. Yes. Like Jesus Christ. Yeah, George was one of them. I mean, there's been a bunch of guys like that. But that's that different level of power punching. I mean, Ernie Shavers was another one. There's certain guys. You know, I mean, fuck man. Thomas Herns and his prime. The way he put away Roberto Duran. Holy shit. He didn't kill you. And also the torque. You know, there was so much distance between like the length of his arms, the width of his shoulders and then when that punch would come in. Jesus. You catch you on the end, you got trouble. You get caught in that last that last power area. Yes. Yes. We just put the lights out. Kovalov never had that kind of power. It was like a snapping power. I mean, listen, he did have power. I don't want to take away from him. Yes. No. Yes. Definitely. He beat a lot of guys in their hometowns, home countries, like, and it's a reason why like at a certain point in the fight, you would see him hit a guy and then all of a sudden their body language is different. And I think one thing that was lost on my whole career that nobody ever talked about was I probably had one of the best teams in the sport of boxing over the last, you know, at that time, 10 years. Like I had beaten the best, the heaviest punchers in the game and in my weight class. Like if you look at Kovalov out of all the damage that he's done in the light heavyweight division, he had 20 rounds. He had one moment. He didn't have a wobble. He didn't have a he didn't shake me up anywhere. One moment and it was a flash moment. So just quantify that like a guy who his name is the crusher. Like he is who he is. He had one moment in 20 rounds. So a lot of it had to do with my chin. A lot of it had to do with my toughness, which is also underrated. And and I just like, I know this is going to sound dramatic. I know it's going to sound dramatic, but I didn't like to lose. And for me, it was kind of like either win or die. Like that's like, that's how I felt like it wasn't that serious. But that's how it felt like I always thought about Sunday morning. I do it if you lose. It's going to be a crazy ride home on that plane. Family is going to be looking crazy, feeling bad. Everybody is going to be looking at you different like and you're going to feel crazy like I remember being curled up like in a ball on a Southwest flight coming back from the next of Kansas, losing my the last fight I ever lost against John Revish, a guy from Baton Rouge, Louisiana, 14 years old, 14. That is hilarious. 14, 14 years old, retired, never lost again. And John was it was a 14, 15 year old bracket. So he was a little bit older and he was kind of a stocky kid again, country strong. And we were watching each other in separate back. And so, you know, it's like a five day tournament. You could fight four to five times and get to the finals. And I'm looking at him. And I was a little bit intimidated. He didn't punk me like, oh, I'm scared to death. But I was like, man, I'm a little leery. And he was knocking guys out. And I was decisioning guys along the way. It could have went either way. I think he won a three two decision. Three judges went his way. Two judges went my way. But that would but if I was honest with myself, like I got beat before the fight. And at that moment, like feeling the way I felt coming home, I made up my mind like, dude, if it as much as that's up to me, like that's never going to happen again. Like I can't control every every aspect of the fight game stuff happens, but it's not going to be because you beat me before the fight. I can't live with this anymore. So that was my motivation, man, that just the drive like it was like win or die. And then and here's the thing about boxing. The only I don't know about MMA, but the only sport that I know of where one loss changes your pay scale. Like if you have a minimum, OK, you win a title, your first defense is this. Second defense is that these are your minimums will negotiate beyond that. You know, whatever, whatever. Go ahead and lose one. That's going to get cut in half. So a loss literally takes food off my family's table. I also knew that my critics and my supporters, but namely my critics, they had a front row seat every fight. Mm hmm. I got the type in the right. They're looking down or looking up, looking down, looking up. So I get in a ring, you know, before the first bill would ring and I go around and kind of just feel the ring I don't kind of look out and I'd always see them looking is tonight going to be the night. So I had that weighing on me. I had the supporters that believed in me and was riding for me. And I look, you know, first couple of rows, my family's right there, my wife, my kids, I'd always blow our kids. Like all of this stuff was like tangible and real to me. And that's the stuff that would drive me. And so I get knocked down by a covaleid like that's fight or flight time, baby. Like whatever's in you is going to come out. If you got some turn in you, that's the time you're going to turn. It's going to be self preservation mode. And you're going to be so you're going to be more focused on surviving than you are trying to win. And I thank God, man, that that he had his hand on me that night, bro. And that what was in me was real and it was enough to break him. And the rest is history. The rest is history. It is. It is amazing how much energy people get from haters. I mean, I don't I don't recommend reading negative comments or negative articles, but it's amazing how people with a certain kind of resolve, a championship resolve will take that hatershit and you'll get up 15 minutes earlier than you're supposed to and you'll have more intensity in your shadow boxing. And you'll you'll just push hard and you'll feel it. But I don't want to give the haters too much credit. What's all you? I don't want to give the haters too much credit. Like they gave you fuel, though. But it was it was weird, though. And I don't even know how to quantify. I don't even want to explain it, but like early in my career, they got a lot more credit. And, you know, I got great mentors, man. My pastor, Napoleon Kaufman, former raider. It's a great man of God, just a great, great man. He I would always come like, man, pastor, man, they're hating on me. And he'd be like, listen, son, listen, stop giving these people all this credit, man. He said, listen, man, they got. They can't do anything to you unless God allows them to stay focused on what you got to do. So I started to get it as I evolved in my pro career and as I started to mature as a man. So I knew they were there. That element was always going to be there. But I started letting that element work for me. Like I wouldn't like I wouldn't just, you know, just just be enamored with it. And I wouldn't just sit there and read comments and stuff. You know, frankly, the last three or four years of my career, I didn't read a mention, not one mention on Twitter. I didn't look at comments on Instagram every now and again. Something would slip through. But I knew they were there. And I knew generally what was being said. I knew generally what the articles in the headline would read. So it was there. But the real driving force was the people that were writing for me, fighting for me, supporting me, believing in me. That element was there. And I was going to address that element through my performance. But they didn't I don't want to give them too much credit, though. They don't deserve that much. No, they don't deserve that much credit. But they're good. They're good to have. There's something there. But you were very wise in the way you manage their influence by not reading those comments. Not all the time. But like I got the revelation, like I said, at a certain point, like, man, I'm done with this, bro. I'm not doing this. Yes. I only started to read comments again. Frankly, I didn't watch boxing for the past three or four years of my career. Really? And I'm a boxing buff. Why didn't you watch? I was burnt out. The opinions, the biased, the double standards, good stuff too. But I would just burn. And it was so weird for me because I'm the guy that would break his neck to go watch Tuesday night. Gillette fights as a kid. Like, I got to get back. Dude, you don't even know who's fighting. It doesn't matter. It's two guys in the ring. I'm watching it. Friday night fights for many years. I was over it. Going through what I went through with the lawsuit, going through what I went through with the injuries, the highs and lows and everything in between. I was just burnt out. Can you refresh my memory? The lawsuit was a promotion lawsuit. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It was it was a you know, I can't get too much into it, but it was just something that man, I just I fought for myself. And you know, but it was it was a long two year journey. On my best day, I'm like, you're doing the right thing, son. Stay stay stay in the race. Keep fighting. It may not look it may not be going your way now, but just stand like you're not fighting. Money's not coming in, but just stay the course. You're doing the right thing on my worst day. I'm like, oh, you're going it. You're getting rushed on you. You know, people are right. Now, I would rather fight in the courtroom than fight in the ring. And I'm like, that's not it. I'm just trying to I'm trying to fight for what I believe is true. So but I grew up a lot. But coming out of that, I was like, man, I'm done with all that stuff, man. Like, I don't know how many years I got left in this sport. But I'm not focused on you. I got to focus on me. And it wasn't until I retired and got full time in the broadcasting and commentating that I started to watch again. I started to understand who was out there on the landscape and research. And but I didn't watch it for many years. That's crazy. Yeah, I was done. It makes sense. I mean, you probably in your early days were so hungry for boxing because you had so much desire that you wanted to watch it all the time. Excuse me. But the amount of effort required to become a champion. But you don't see the behind the scenes, though. Then you grow up and you see the business side and you see the dark side. It's like, it's different. The darkness, dark side. Yeah, there's a lot of that man in boxing. I mean, it's historical. The Don King, Mike Tyson stories. The I mean, there's so many stories in Don King, Muhammad Ali. There's so many stories like that. It's it's so sad. It's it's an awful side of the business. It is. It is.