Ward dominated the fight from the opening round as Smith maintained a defensive posture by blocking Ward’s power punches and waiting for a clear opening to launch his own assault,
“I know what he was trying to do,” Ward said. “He was trying to lure me in then hit me with the big right hand. He hit me with a couple of good shots but he didn’t hurt me,” Ward added.
Smith found his target in the seventh round when he staggered Ward with a solid right, but Ward responded with a series of punches that drew blood from Smith’s face at the end of the round.
More blood dropped from Smith’s face in the eighth round as they exchanged power punches.
Ward continued his relentless assault in the ninth round that drew more blood from the cut on Smith’s face. Midway to the round, Smith’s face was nearly covered with blood, prompting Smith’s trainer Joe Gallagher to throw a towel as a signal for the referee to stop the fight.
“Smith was taking unnecessary punishment,” Gallagher said. “Andre kept cutting open that cut over his eye. Blood was pooling over his eye. It was a war we didn’t want to continue,” Gallagher added.
Smith came in a little overweight and he paid a prize for the excess. “It was a genuine mistake,” Smith said. “I apologized to the team. My fault,” he added.
Ward managed to stay unbeaten despite his long absence from the sport following his problem with his promoter Dan Goosen, who passed away during the lifetime of his contract.
After settling his dispute the Goosen’s family, Ward has signed up with Jay Z’s Roc Nation Sports, the same company that handled Miguel Cotto’s fight against Daniel Geale of Australia last June 6 at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York.
