Andre Ward vs Carl Froch – Super Six World Boxing Classic Final

Fight week for the Super Six World Boxing Classic Final is in full swing! SHOWTIME Sports and Gus Johnson report from NYC where Andre Ward and Carl Froch met the press.

Andre Ward was on time for the Super Six Final press conference at the Edison Ballroom Tuesday afternoon. But he found himself waiting for Carl Froch, his opponent in the 168-pound tournament finale in Atlantic City on Saturday night.

Ward, the WBA super middleweight champion, did a round of interviews with reporters. And he waited. He did more interviews for the Showtime documentary crew that has been following him around for the last 3 months. And he waited some more. Still no Froch. So Andre Ward cooled his heels in the balcony of the ballroom with nothing to do.

After 2 hours, Froch and his team finally showed up for the press conference. He said he was late because he had to go to JFK Airport to pick up his promoter, Ed Hearn, who was traveling from England.

Judging from his edgy demeanor once the press conference got underway, you got the impression that Andre Ward was going to make Carl Froch pay for his tardiness when they climb into the ring on Showtime on Saturday night.

Time and waiting have been a running theme of this tournament, which started two years ago with the ambitious idea of finding the best 168-pound boxer in a loaded division. Over that time, three of the original boxers dropped out of the tournament with injuries and there have been all sorts of twists and turns inside the ring – surprising knockouts, strange decisions and even a disqualification.

Even the final was marred when Andre Ward sustained a cut above his eye during sparring two weeks before the fight was to take place on October 29, and it had to be postponed.

Carl Froch said he wasn’t bothered by the 5-week delay.

“It did me a favor because my coach, Robert McCracken, is responsible for the British 2012 Olympic boxing team and he had to take the team to the World Championships and he was going to be away for two weeks before we came here for the fight,” Froch said.

To Ward’s way of thinking it just gave him more time to prepare himself for taking on Froch, who lost his WBC title and won it back in the Super Six tournament.

“I’m prepared for this to be physically and mentally the toughest fight on my career,” Ward said. “I expect it would be the same for him.”