Gloves’ Labors Lost

The formula seemed simple: Olympic gold medal in the ring equals Golden Boy in the bank account.

Andre Ward knew it had worked for Oscar De La Hoya. Ward was aware that Ricardo Williams had expanded the formula by signing for well over $1 million after winning silver at the 2000 Olympics.

So with the gold medal he won in this year’s Olympics securely around his neck, Ward came home to Oakland to field the offers. Surely promoters would be waving outlandish amounts of money in his face.

He had strong selling points. He was the first American boxer to win Olympic gold in eight years, he hadn’t lost a fight in six years, and he was articulate, humble and spoke mostly of God and country in post-fight news conferences in Athens.

But although Ward, who will make his professional debut Saturday night at Staples Center on the undercard of the Antonio Tarver-Glen Johnson light-heavyweight fight, has plenty to sell, boxing isn’t buying right now.

The sport has hit a low point, the negative stories far outweighing the positive. Fixed fights, FBI investigations, poor pay-per-view numbers and a diminishing number of headline fighters have drained boxing of much of its appeal. The road to the top is far steeper and certainly not paved with gold. So Ward, after surveying the market, signed with co-promoters Dan Goossen and Roy Jones for about $400,000 -- hardly chump change, but not the seven-figure total he had envisioned.

“It’s not like it was for the class of 2000,” said Ward, 20. “I know that. I understand boxing is experiencing a drought right now. I had to accept that. Of course you want to be a millionaire. Who doesn’t? My time is going to come. It’s a slap in the face, but I’m going to use this as motivation.”

*

Virgil Hunter clearly remembers the first time he saw Ward. It was at the U.S. Karate and Boxing Gym in Hayward, Calif., where Hunter worked with kids.

Worked, that is, until the kids learned that he expected them to really work.

“What I demanded,” Hunter said, “most kids couldn’t handle, so I was on cruise control.”

That’s when he noticed the 9-year-old pounding a heavy bag. The youngster caught his eye, made sure Hunter was watching and then threw a few more punches at the bag.

“I could see the kid had a little pop,” Hunter said.

Soon, the 9-year-old’s father, Frank Ward, a former amateur boxer, approached Hunter and asked whether he knew of a good trainer for his son, Andre. Hunter tested Andre in the Wards’ nearby backyard and liked what he saw, and they have been together ever since.

Winning two national championships, Ward, a natural middleweight, stayed on the road to the Olympics. But, as he did so, he saw himself on a collision course. His cousin, Donyell Livingston, was boxing at the same weight.

“I wouldn’t ever fight him,” Ward said.

So instead, Ward moved up to the 178-pound weight class, even though there was no way he could bulk up that much. In the Olympics, he entered the ring somewhere between 169 and 172 pounds for every match, forced to concede six to nine pounds.

It was a disadvantage, but Hunter never worried.

“Andre is very strong,” Hunter said. “You can ask people. When Andre was 10, I predicted he would win a gold medal in 2004. So I expected it all along. When I saw his competition, I knew my prediction would be right.”

So did Chazz Witherspoon, an Olympic alternate and Ward’s roommate in Athens.

“He used his speed and his smartness to mitigate the weight factor,” Witherspoon said. “And he was such a hard worker. In Athens, he was always the first person in the gym and the last person out.”

Hunter and Witherspoon might have seen what was coming, but greater attention heading into Athens was focused on super-heavyweight Jason Estrada.

With Estrada, highly quotable and supremely confident, in the spotlight, Ward, soft-spoken and humble, had to be content waiting in the shadows for his moment.

When it came, it was all the sweeter because of the bitterness that preceded it. Estrada did and said all the wrong things, emerging from the Games every bit the ugly American. He gained 35 pounds in the year before the Olympics, not much of that muscle, lost in the quarterfinals to Michel Lopez of Cuba, and then trashed the Olympics, saying he didn’t need the Games, that he was going to go home and wait for pro offers to flood in.

His was an easy act to follow. Not only did Ward become the first American Olympic gold-medal winner in boxing since David Reid in 1996, but he did so in impressive fashion, in the ring and at the news conference that followed. He defeated Magomed Aripgadjiev of Belarus, 20-13, then shared with reporters his national pride.

“I felt like I had the whole country on my shoulders,” Ward said.

The load is different now, though not necessarily lighter. When Ward faces Christopher Molina (2-0, one knockout) on Saturday, he will be shouldering his future.

Tarver, who fought in the 1996 Olympics, was asked whether he has any advice for Ward as Ward sets out on his pro career.

Said Tarver: “Get a good lawyer.”