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Life after boxing has been a mixed bag for Andre Ward.
The former undisputed light heavyweight champion retired from the sweet science in 2017 at the age of 33 following his second win over Sergey Kovalev.
It meant like only a few of the highest-level combat sports icons, he was able to retire on top and as a champion as he left boxing with an undefeated 32-0 record.
But while it's been a blessing for Ward — regarded by many to be among the greatest boxers of this generation — retirement has also been a lot of harder than expected for the San Francisco native.
Especially when he was linked with a return to fight Canelo Alvarez.
“It’s been a blessing, but walking away and staying away has been harder than I thought,” Ward said on Shawn Porter's podcast (via Boxing Social). “For me, I thought I was going to have to retire one time, but really I had to retire multiple times.
“You’ve got the official retirement, then there was the time where stuff started mounting and tell everyone that I’m not [coming back], the whole Canelo stuff. I was doing that for the people, but also more for myself.”
In the end, while Ward retired from boxing, his drive to compete and be the best certainly didn't go away.
“I’m a thinker, so I’ve got a whole game plan on the comeback,” he added. “How much time that I need, how it would look, I don’t want to campaign, just give me one or two.
“Fighting that stuff is hard, bro. I retired, but that drive didn’t retire.”
