Photo and video credit: Art of Ward / All The Smoke Fight
Nearly 14 years after their 2012 light heavyweight title fight, two-time Hall of Famer Andre Ward sits down with three-time world champion “Bad” Chad Dawson for an emotional, wide-ranging conversation on the latest episode of THE ART OF WARD.
In the opening minutes, Ward gets visibly emotional, telling Dawson he never wanted the fight in the first place, and that no other opponent has affected him the way that night did — a fight Dawson admits reshaped the rest of his career and personal life. The two then take listeners deep inside fight week itself: a training-camp sparring knockdown that leaked to the press, spies tracking Dawson’s gym schedule, and a tense staredown at the weigh-in that Ward says he used to get inside Dawson’s head before the opening bell. Dawson reveals he only watched the full fight back for the first time in the days before this taping.
The interview dives deep into:
- Ward’s emotional admission that he never wanted to fight Dawson, and how that night “changed everything” for both of them
- Dawson’s account of going dark after the loss — three years away from home in Las Vegas as his career and family life unraveled
- The training-camp sparring knockdown by substitute partner Miranda that leaked to the boxing press two weeks out
- How Ward’s team tracked Dawson’s gym attendance during fight week — “we had plants everywhere”
- The tense face-off and weigh-in exchange Ward used to get inside Dawson’s head before the opening bell
- Dawson revealing he only watched their full 2012 fight back in its entirety for the first time this week
- Dawson’s path to the pros: starting boxing at age 9 in New Haven, following his father into the sport, and turning pro at 18
- Life after retirement, coaching his sons in basketball, and his recent sparring stint in Jake Paul’s training camp
Ward’s apology to Dawson:
“I didn’t want to fight you, dog… I wish we would have stayed away and never fought. That stuff affected me big time, bro. To this day, it do.”
Dawson on the fight’s aftermath:
“My situation was it all started with your fight… After that loss, that’s when everything just went downhill. I was straight done with boxing.”
Dawson on finally watching the fight back:
“I ain’t really mad, because I lost to you — an Olympian, somebody bred for this… I always thought you was the best.”
Ward on the mental warfare of fight week:
“I gotta shoot the missile right now… ‘Better tighten it up tomorrow, man, I heard about what happened this morning.’ That’s gonna get anybody.”
Throughout the episode, Ward and Dawson move past the fight itself into a rare, unguarded conversation between two men who shaped each other’s careers — closing a chapter both admit they’d never fully talked through until now.
ABOUT THE ART OF WARD
Andre Ward, the International Boxing Hall of Famer and two division unified world champion, serves as Chief Content Officer for ALL THE SMOKE FIGHT (@ATSFight) and launched the original series THE ART OF WARD in 2025. The series features a range of thoughtful content showcasing Ward’s unmatched perspective shaped by his evolution as a fighter, a man and an influential figure in combat sports.
ALL THE SMOKE FIGHT is a division of ALL THE SMOKE PRODUCTIONS, a contemporary media company and creative agency founded in 2024 by NBA Champion Matt Barnes, and Brian Dailey, the former Showtime Sports programming executive responsible for bringing ALL THE SMOKE and several multimedia programs and documentaries to the network in recent years. ATS FIGHT was founded in June by some of the most trusted sources for honest, engaging and relevant coverage of combat sports for the last two decades. ATS FIGHT surrounds combat sports events with premium storytelling, interviews and analysis from all corners of the fight game. With a reach of 10.4 million followers across platforms, and greater than 3x the entertainment industry’s average monthly engagements, ATS FIGHT boasts a coveted and engaged global audience that rivals all other entities in the industry, and is the only company dedicated wholly to fight game.
