Podcast · Sport

The Art Of Ward

by Black Effect x All The Smoke Productions · English · Sport

THE ART OF WARD is a series hosted by Boxing Hall of Famer and Chief Content Officer for ALL THE SMOKE FIGHT Andre Ward exploring the fight game from the inside out. THE ART OF WARD series is a tapestry of thoughtful content showcasing Ward’s personal, unmatched perspective shape

New episodes: Weekly
Typical length: 1 hr 8 min
Latest: 13 Oct 2026
Language: English

Latest episode

13 Oct 2026 · 19 minNew

Mike Tyson Admitted He Was Terrified—Andre Ward Explains Why It Mattered

On this special Mike Tyson edition of HALL OF GAME, Andre Ward sits down with six-time world champion Zab Judah to look ahead to Netflix’s four-part ‘TYSON’ documentary series and unpack the contradictions behind one of boxing’s most feared figures. Zab recalls spending a month with Tyson as a teenager—and wrecking one of his brand-new custom Ducati motorcycles. Zab expected the worst. Instead, Mike asked whether he and his brother were okay and told them, “That bike is replaceable. You guys are not replaceable.” Dre and Zab also discuss Tyson’s intelligence, his honesty about entering…

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Earlier episodes 29 most recent

7 Oct 2026 · 36 min
Is It Fury vs. Joshua or Dana White vs. Eddie Hearn? Dre & Zab Judah Break Down the BEEF
Roy Jones Jr. is out this week, so Andre Ward brings in the newest member of the All The Smoke family: six-time world champion, former undisputed welterweight king and Hall of Famer Zab Judah, the pride of Brooklyn, sitting in on Hall of Game. They start with Ben Whittaker's unanimous decision over Conor Wallace, the 10th round that had him in real trouble for the first time as a pro, and his own admission that he switched off. Dre shares the uppercut that wobbled him in his second pro fight, and both have a message for Eddie Hearn on how to move Whittaker from here. Then it's Tyson Fury vs.…
30 Sep 2026 · 2 hr 9 min
Marshawn Lynch: The Contract Talk That Almost Got Physical, Retiring & “7 Car Crashes” a Game
Marshawn Lynch pulls up on Andre Ward for a sit-down between two guys from the same soil. North Oakland, Oakland Tech, and a whole lot of people who knew them before anyone else did. Marshawn gets into how he kept his family together through the fame when so many athletes lose theirs, the Seahawks contract talk in a locker room that got so heated he nearly put hands on his GM, and the lesson it taught him about leverage that he still uses on every deal.Then it’s Beast Mode. The coaches who told a kid at Oakland Tech he was training for the league, the shoulder-pad sensors that clocked a…
15 Sep 2026 · 1 hr 31 min
Joe Tessitore: Collapsing at MSG Before Crawford-Khan, Ripping Out His Own IV & Why Bud Waited
Joe Tessitore sits down with Andre Ward, his broadcast partner of thousands of hours and, as Dre puts it, a mentor and a brother.The career is all here. Local news in Hartford, the ESPN call in late 2001 that put him next to Teddy Atlas on Friday Night Fights, the Emanuel Augustus fights he still calls flashes of genius, and why he never negotiates his own deals. He talks about getting pulled off Monday Night Football in the New York Post and not attaching emotion to a corporation, what actually separates a professional from a talent, and the Mike McQuade introduction that made a whole…
18 Aug 2026 · 1 hr 31 min
Chad Dawson: Andre Ward’s Apology, The Leaked Sparring Knockdown & Weigh-In Mind Games
Fourteen years after the fight that changed both their lives, Andre Ward sits down with “Bad” Chad Dawson and gets some things off his chest. Ward opens up about why he never wanted the fight, the apology he’s carried ever since, and what he knew about Dawson’s camp that he saved for the weigh-in. Dawson holds nothing back either: getting dropped in sparring two weeks out, who leaked it, why he’s “110% sure” Bernard Hopkins faked the shoulder injury, the Adonis Stevenson knockout, and the same referee who stopped both of his worst nights.From gloves on his hands as a baby to signing his…
11 Aug 2026 · 1 hr 10 min
Zab Judah: The Mayweather Knockdown They Never Called, Roger in the Ring & $350K in Fines
We’re BACK for PART 2 of THE ART OF WARD featuring Zab Judah. Zab kicks off by telling Andre Ward what the Cory Spinks fight week actually looked like: checking into the hotel under an alias and getting a death threat on the room phone anyway, armed security rotating outside his door through the night, and sending his conditioning coach out in street clothes to order the team’s food because he was certain somebody would try to poison it.Then the run that defined the rest of his career. He lost the undisputed title to Carlos Baldomir, and Don King had him re-signing his contract that same…
4 Aug 2026 · 1 hr 13 min
Zab Judah: Don King’s $250K Gucci Bag, Meeting Mike Tyson at 8 & The Kostya Tszyu Blow Up
Zab Judah sits down with Andre Ward for a two-part conversation on a career that started at six years old and didn’t end until he was 41. The Brownsville-born six-time world champion takes Dre all the way back to the beginning: a mother and father who met in karate school, a house where you fought your own brothers for food and for who got the bike, the Golden Gloves chain snatched off his neck on the train, and the night his father woke him up in the middle of the night just to put him in front of Mike Tyson.Part 1 is the climb and the first collapse. Duva pulled him out of the Golden…
30 Jul 2026 · 47 min
Dre & Roy Break Down Spence vs Tszyu, Fulton’s Weight Disaster, Berlanga’s Must-Win & Fury-Joshua
Andre Ward & Roy Jones Jr are BACK after a wild weekend of boxing. Errol Spence Jr. came back after three years away, flew to Australia to fight Tim Tszyu in his own backyard, went the distance, and then walked away from the sport for good. The internet decided he looked shot. Dre and Roy see it completely differently, and Roy has a message for everybody with an opinion: if you never told him when to start, you don’t get to tell him when to stop.Plus Stephen Fulton misses weight again and comes home from Australia with no check, Edgar Berlanga climbs off the canvas to save his night at the…
22 Jul 2026 · 1 hr 32 min
Antonio Tarver: The Roy Jones Knockout, “Any Excuses Tonight?” & The Greatest Story Never Told
Fresh off his 2026 International Boxing Hall of Fame induction, Antonio “The Magic Man” Tarver sits down with Andre Ward and takes him from Ivy Lane in Orlando to Canastota: raised by a single mom with three sisters, put in the ring at nine as a punishment at the Boys and Girls Club, and the rock bottom at 18 that ended in drug rehab, where he was telling anyone who’d listen that he was going to the Olympics.Tarver gets into the stories only he can tell: watching Roy Jones get robbed in Seoul and getting up off the couch to run, captaining the ’96 Olympic team that consisted of a young Floyd…
16 Jul 2026 · 1 hr 8 min
Jermall Charlo: The Truth About Turning Down Canelo, Al Haymon’s Handshake Deal & The Comeback at 36
Jermall Charlo sits down with Andre Ward in Houston for his first real conversation in years, just as his comeback fight on the Tim Tszyu/Errol Spence card in Australia is around the corner. The two-time world champion and one half of Lions Only takes Dre back to the beginning: a two-parent household in H-Town, fighting on the same amateur card as his own father, the ingrown toenail that cost him the 2008 Olympics, and why he turned pro without ever signing a contract with anyone.Jermall gets into the stories only he can tell: jumping the gate to introduce himself to Al Haymon and the…
30 Jun 2026 · 1 hr 2 min
Boots Ennis BROKE Xander Zayas Down, but Roy & Dre Don’t Agree on That “Mental Lapse”
Andre Ward and Roy Jones Jr. are back with a new edition of HALL OF GAME, and they’re going straight at the fight everybody just watched: Jaron “Boots” Ennis stopping Xander Zayas in the 7th round at Barclays. Boots broke Zayas down to the body, but the Hall of Fame duo don’t see the third round firefight the same way. Roy calls it going to sleep, Dre calls it an exchange, and they go back and forth on whether it’s a real flaw or just the cost of having that much in the bag.From there it’s the stoppage everyone’s arguing about: should Zayas’ corner have waved it off in the fifth to save him…
23 Jun 2026 · 1 hr 1 min
Crawford Defends Errol Spence From the Haters, Plus Zayas vs. Boots & Bam Rodriguez Makes History
Andre Ward and Roy Jones Jr. are back in a new edition of HALL OF GAME, and they’re not holding back. They break down the fight everybody’s talking about, Jaron “Boots” Ennis vs. Xander Zayas on June 27 at Barclays, and Roy makes his pick clear: on paper, Boots is supposed to win, and the only question is whether Zayas can take the punch. Who will come out on top?First they get into the NBA Finals: how the New York Knicks erased a 29-point Game 4 lead and snatched the title from Victor Wembanyama and the Spurs after 53 years, why Roy says De’Aaron Fox’s turnovers “turned the team off,” and…
16 Jun 2026 · 1 hr 57 min
Errol Spence: The Floyd Sparring Standoff, Crawford Camp Issues & The Crash That Changed Everything
Errol Spence Jr. pulls up to THE ART OF WARD in Houston, in the middle of training for Tim Tszyu, for one of the most open conversations of his career. The Dallas native and former unified welterweight champion takes Andre all the way back — fighting in the DeSoto streets, a 120-degree gym with no AC, starting boxing late but making the 2012 Olympic team anyway, and the mindset that made him a feared sparring-session legend before he ever turned pro.Errol gets into the stories only he can tell: the day Floyd Mayweather called him an expletive mid-session and they turned off the bell to keep…
10 Jun 2026 · 1 hr 9 min
Shakur Stevenson: ‘I’m Not Easy Work’ & The Truth About the Devin Haney Standoff
Shakur Stevenson sits down with Andre Ward on THE ART OF WARD for the third time, and it might be the most unfiltered one yet. Fresh off selling out Madison Square Garden and turning Teofimo Lopez into a one-sided beatdown, the four-division world champ breaks down how he played that fight a thousand times in his head before the first bell, why he’s suddenly boxing’s most wanted (and most clout-chased) name, and the real story behind walking away from his WBC belt.Shakur goes deep on the Devin Haney standoff and the 144 vs 147 weight tug-of-war, fires back at Bill Haney’s “easy work” claim,…
2 Jun 2026 · 55 min
Andre Ward: ‘I Knew Going Into Kovalev 2 That Was My Last Fight’ | Virgil Hunter Part 2
Picking up where Part 1 left off, Virgil and Andre go all the way through the pro career. The 2004 Staples Center debut. The knockdown by Darnell Boone that nearly cost him an HBO deal. The frantic red-eye to Germany to lock in the Super Six tournament and opening the bracket against Mikkel Kessler at home, plus the collision course with Andre Dirrell that Bumper kept saying wouldn’t happen — and the moment Andre’s mind shifted on his own friend. Skipping Lucian Bute, beating Chad Dawson, and the two-year lawsuit that almost derailed everything.Then the Kovalev story like it’s never been…
27 May 2026 · 1 hr 16 min
Virgil Hunter On The Day Andre Almost Lost Everything: “You’re Going To Go Downhill” | Part 1
For the first time ever, the man behind Andre Ward’s undefeated career and 2004 Olympic Gold sits down on THE ART OF WARD... and they go all the way back.Virgil Hunter, 2011 Boxing Writers Association Trainer of the Year, pulls up for Part 1 of a two-part conversation 32 years in the making.This isn’t just a boxing conversation. This is the full story.The day a 10-year-old Andre walked into US Karate & Boxing in Hayward and locked eyes with a quietly depressed Virgil, still grieving the loss of his first prospect. Frank Ward’s simple request: “teach my son how to hit and not get hit.” The…
19 May 2026 · 1 hr 51 min
Carl Froch On Biting Andre Ward, Calzaghe Ghosting Him & Leaving The UK
14 years later, Carl ‘The Cobra’ Froch sits down face-to-face with Andre Ward. The 2023 Hall of Famer, 4-time super middleweight world champion, and one of the most fearless personalities in boxing pulls up to THE ART OF WARD for a conversation almost nobody thought would ever happen.Froch walks Andre through the full story. From a skinny kid in Nottingham getting flattened on a rugby pitch, to walking back into a boxing gym at 19, to becoming a four-time world champion at super middleweight. He gets into the Pascal war, the Jermain Taylor stoppage with torn ankle ligaments and a scratched…
14 May 2026 · 1 hr 39 min
Lady Ward: Teenage Pregnancy, Virg Saved Us & The 'I'm Done' Retirement Moment
For the first time ever, Tiffiney Ward steps in front of the camera on THE ART OF WARD. Andre’s wife, best friend, and the woman who’s been by his side for over 25 years opens up about the life she’s kept almost entirely offline. From growing up as an Army brat in Germany, to losing her dad as a teenager, to getting pregnant at 16 and being moved down to Oakland by Virgil Hunter and his wife Millie, this is the origin story behind one of boxing’s greatest careers.Tiffiney pulls the curtain back on the moments most fans have never heard: their Wednesday-night bible study wedding, the contract…
5 May 2026 · 38 min
Benavidez Should Fight Usyk Next, Errol Spence Returns vs Tszyu & Inoue Breaks Tyson’s Record
Andre Ward and Roy Jones Jr. break down a stacked Cinco de Mayo weekend that delivered everything boxing fans wanted. David Benavidez became the first three-division champion across super middleweight, light heavyweight, and cruiserweight with a dominant performance against Gilberto “Zurdo” Ramirez, and the question of what comes next is the biggest one in the sport right now. Roy makes a bold strategic call the Hall of Game audience will be debating for weeks: skip Jai Opetaia, skip every other cruiserweight, and go straight to Oleksandr Usyk while the iron is hot.Andre and Roy also dig…
28 Apr 2026 · 30 min
David Benavidez: The $3K Zurdo Sparring Story, Cinco de Mayo Takeover & Stoppage Promise
David Benavidez sits down with Andre Ward and Roy Jones Jr. on HALL OF GAME just days out from his cruiserweight showdown with Gilberto “Zurdo” Ramirez at T-Mobile Arena on May 2nd. El Monstro opens up on the move to 200 pounds, walking around at 210, and what it means to finally own a Cinco de Mayo weekend after 13 pro years and 27 years in the sport. “Greatness is not given. It’s taken.”Benavidez tells the story of sparring Zurdo at 17 years old for six weeks helping him prep for Arthur Abraham. Now they’re headlining a pay-per-view. He breaks down the speed advantage, why the punches that…
21 Apr 2026 · 26 min
Zurdo Ramirez: Benavidez’s Weaknesses, Their Sparring War & Mexico vs Mexico on May 2
Hall of Famers Andre Ward and Roy Jones Jr. welcome Mexico’s first-ever cruiserweight world champion Gilberto “Zurdo” Ramirez ahead of his Cinco de Mayo showdown with David Benavidez at T-Mobile Arena on Saturday, May 2 (live on PBC Prime Video PPV). Zurdo opens up about the pay-per-view-level sparring sessions he shared with Benavidez, admits Benavidez has “weaknesses” he’s been studying in the gym, and breaks down how he plans to fight a volume puncher without matching him punch-for-punch. This is a Mexico vs Mexico fight for Cinco de Mayo — the holiday Floyd Mayweather and Canelo Alvarez…
16 Apr 2026 · 54 min
Xander Zayas: Super Bowl with Bad Bunny, Boots Ennis Showdown & Untold Stories
Unified 154-pound champion Xander Zayas sits down with Ak & Barak on RING CHAMPS for his most personal interview yet. The 23-year-old Puerto Rican star opens up about being bullied as a kid, his mom putting him in boxing to defend himself, getting beat up by a girl in the gym, and the moment everything clicked. Xander reveals the real story behind his stepdad becoming his father figure and how a single conversation about work ethic changed the trajectory of his career from natural talent to #1 in the nation.On the fight side, Xander breaks down his upcoming mega fight against Jaron “Boots”…
14 Apr 2026 · 1 hr 4 min
Mike Bibby, Andre Ward & Urijah Faber Reveal What Sacramento State Is Really Building | COMBAT U
Andre Ward, Matt Barnes, and Urijah Faber hit Sacramento State for the first-ever Combat U panel, joined by university president Dr. Luke Wood, head basketball coach Mike Bibby, rising star Ayahna Gonzales, and more. This isn’t your typical fight podcast. This is a live event inside the only collegiate combat sports program in the country, where Hall of Famers across boxing, MMA, and basketball are building something nobody’s ever seen before.Andre breaks down what it means to be the GM of a college boxing team. Urijah lays out his full vision for creating a legitimate pathway from college…
7 Apr 2026 · 56 min
The VIRAL Roy Jones Corner Moment Explained, Boots vs Zayas & Tyson Fury Returns
The VIRAL Roy Jones Corner Moment Explained, Boots vs Zayas & Tyson Fury ReturnsFury’s Comeback, Benn & Prograis’ ‘Crossroads Fight’ and The Corner Moment That Broke BoxingBoots vs Zayas Is OFFICIAL, Fury Returns + Inside Roy Jones & Kevin Newman’s Viral Corner MomentAndre Ward & Roy Jones Jr. are back with another HALL OF GAME, and this one gets personal. The Hall of Famers sit down with Roy’s fighter, Kevin Newman II, to break down the viral corner moment that took over social media during Newman’s fight against Elijah Garcia on the Fundora-Thurman undercard. Roy reveals what was going…
31 Mar 2026 · 1 hr 23 min
Matt Barnes: The Racist Hit on His Life, Kobe’s Last Promise & the Road Back to God
Andre Ward sits down with ALL THE SMOKE co-founder, Matt Barnes, for one of the most raw, unfiltered conversations in THE ART OF WARD history. Matt opens up about growing up biracial in Sacramento, fighting for respect on both sides, and the terrifying moment a racist incident at his high school turned into a hit on his life -- complete with NAACP intervention, 24-hour security, and a phone call from his own cousin in prison.Matt goes deep on his NBA career: getting cut and grinding through the D-League, finally getting a chance under Don Nelson, the vindication game where he lit up Mo…
25 Mar 2026 · 39 min
Fundora vs Thurman: The Psychology, The Power & Why BOTH Say It Won't Go The Distance
Sebastian Fundora and Keith Thurman join Andre Ward and Roy Jones Jr. on HALL OF GAME just days before their blockbuster WBC super welterweight championship fight at the MGM Grand Garden Arena Saturday, March 28th on PBC PPV on Prime Video. I n this exclusive pre-fight episode, Thurman opens up about his emotional response to the original fight cancellation, reveals his tactical game plan for closing the 9-inch height gap against The Towering Inferno, and delivers one of the most psychologically intense breakdowns we've ever heard on the show. Meanwhile, WBC champion Sebastian Fundora…
17 Mar 2026 · 1 hr 15 min
Katie Taylor: The Olympic Gold That Stopped Ireland, A Hall of Fame Career & The Serrano Trilogy
Katie Taylor sits down with Andre Ward for an unforgettable conversation that spans her entire legendary career. From growing up in a rough area of Bray, Ireland during a heroin epidemic, to disguising herself as a boy just to compete because women’s boxing wasn’t sanctioned, Taylor’s origin story is unlike anything in sports.The two-time undisputed champion takes us through her impossible dream of winning Olympic gold before women’s boxing was even in the Games, the heartbreak of losing in Rio after stepping away from her father as coach, and how a cold call to her eventual coach in…
10 Mar 2026 · 27 min
Simms Tells Barboza ‘You’re NOT a Big Name, Bro’ & Reveals His Plan to End It March 14th
Andre Ward welcomes welterweight contenders Arnold Barboza and Kenneth Simms, Jr. to the Hall of Game ahead of their March 14th main event at the Honda Center in Anaheim. Both fighters are coming off losses and looking to make a major statement in what’s shaping up to be a true crossroads fight at 147 pounds.Kenneth Simms, Jr. opens up about his razor-thin loss to Oscar Duarte, reveals the DM exchange where he told Barboza “You’re NOT a big name, bro,” and breaks down his game plan to take the fight to the trenches. He also shares the moment Tim Bradley told him he didn’t think he could beat…
6 Mar 2026 · 1 hr 23 min
The Untold Story About Gerald McClellan: "It Just Seemed Like Nobody Cared"
Mr. Lueshing denies certain statements made in this podcast, which have been removed as a courtesy. In one of the most powerful and revealing episodes of THE ART OF WARD, Andre Ward sits down with Lisa McClellan, the sister and primary caretaker of former two-time WBC Middleweight Champion Gerald "G-Man" McClellan. Lisa drops bombshell after bombshell, from the missing mouthpiece before the infamous Nigel Benn fight to Don King holding a champagne celebration in the hospital lobby during Gerald's emergency brain surgery. This is a story every boxing fan needs to hear. For more information on…
25 Feb 2026 · 51 min
Mayweather–Pacquiao 2 Is Official, Claressa Wins Big & Shakur Joins To Talk Ryan Garcia Fight
Andre Ward breaks down a massive fight weekend, including the news of Mayweather vs. Manny Pacquiao 2 at The Sphere on Netflix and what it means when legends return for sanctioned fights. He recaps Ryan Garcia vs. Mario Barrios, why Ryan looked the most complete he’s ever been, and what the win changes moving forward.Plus, Shakur Stevenson joins the show to react to Ryan’s performance and the weight-class reality, before Andre closes with Claressa Shields vs. Franchon Crews-Dezurn 2 in Detroit and the post-fight moment that mattered most. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.…

About The Art Of Ward

The Art Of Ward is a English sport podcast from Black Effect x All The Smoke Productions. Melo plays each episode straight from the publisher's own feed — no ads added, no account needed — and remembers where you stopped, in this browser only.

Publisher: Black Effect x All The Smoke Productions
Language: English
Category: Sport
New episodes: Weekly
Typical length: 1 hr 8 min
Latest episode: 13 Oct 2026
Feed: RSS — paste into any podcast app
Apple Podcasts: podcasts.apple.com/podcast/id1767454006

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