![\"_97964546_trophies\"](\"http:\/\/citifmonline.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/09\/97964546_trophies.jpg\")
<\/p>\nUnified light-heavyweight world champion Andre Ward has retired, ending a career which delivered world titles across two weight divisions.<\/p>\n
Ward, 33, held titles at super-middleweight but moved up a weight division and unified the WBA, IBF and WBO light-heavyweight belts in 2016.<\/p>\n
In a statement he said his body could not “put up with the rigors” of boxing.<\/p>\n
“If I cannot give my family, my team, and the fans everything I have, then I should no longer be fighting,” he said.<\/p>\n
Earlier in the week Ward posted an image to social media showcasing titles he had earned during his career.<\/p>\n
He last fought in June when he stopped Sergey Kovalev in a Las Vegas rematch to defend the titles he had won in a unification bout with the Russian seven months earlier.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Ward inflicted the only defeats of Kovalev’s career and his perfect 32-fight record also boasts victories over names such as Carl Froch and Mikkel Kessler during time spent at super-middleweight.<\/p>\n
“To the sport of boxing – I love you,” wrote the 2004 Olympic gold medallist. “You’ve been by my side since I was 10 years old. You’ve taught me so much. You’ve humbled me. You’ve promoted me.<\/p>\n
“As I walk away from the sport of boxing today, I leave at the top of your glorious mountain, which was always my vision and my dream. I did it. We did it.”<\/p>\n
After turning professional after his Olympic success in 2004, Ward took five years to land his first world title with a shock victory over Kessler.<\/p>\n
That success arrived in the Super Six World Boxing Classic tournament, where Ward later beat Arthur Abraham and Froch to take the trophy.<\/p>\n
–<\/p>\n
Source: BBC<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Unified light-heavyweight world champion Andre Ward has retired, ending a career which delivered world titles across two weight divisions. Ward, 33, held titles at super-middleweight but moved up a weight division and unified the WBA, IBF and WBO light-heavyweight belts in 2016. In a statement he said his body could not “put up with the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[11279,306],"class_list":["post-355337","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-andre-ward","tag-boxing"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/355337","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/14"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=355337"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/355337\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=355337"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=355337"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=355337"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}