Summary: weight world champion, having held the unified WBA (Undisputed), IBF, and WBO light heavyweight titles since 2016. Ward previously held the unified WBA (Super), WBC, Ring magazine, and lineal super middleweight titles between 2009 and 2015. As of November 2016, he is ranked as the second best boxer in the world, pound for pound, by The Ring magazine; sixth by the Transnational Boxing Rankings Board (TBRB); and ninth by BoxRec. He is also ranked as the world's best light heavyweight by BoxRec and The Ring, and second by the TBRB. In 2011 he was named Fighter of the Year by The Ring and the Boxing Writers' Association of America (BWAA). As an amateur, Ward won a gold medal in the light heavyweight division at the 2004 Olympics and turned professional later that year. He rose to worldwide prominence by entering the Super Six World Boxing Classic tournament in 2009, where he won the WBA (Super) super middleweight title from Mikkel Kessler in the opening group stage, and later unifying the title with that of the WBC in 2011, defeating Carl Froch in the tournament final. Since 2014, Ward has also worked as a commentator and expert analyst on HBO.
