Andre Ward vs. Arthur Abraham: 10 Things We Learned from Home Depot Center

Last Saturday we learned many things from the highly anticipated semifinals of Showtime's Super Six World Boxing Classic when undefeated American Andre Ward defeated Arthur Abraham to guarantee himself in the championship fight for the tournament winner.

Much of the media and fans felt that Ward would easily defeat Abraham by simply out-boxing him with his superior skill, and ring IQ. Many felt this fight was nothing more than a formality such as in an interview for a candidate who is the son of the CEO of the company.

For those of you who were not in attendance of the 5,311 crowd at the Home Depot Center last weekend I will fill you in on what I learned being part of the ringside media and being personally invited behind the scenes with the Showtime network production team.

Here is Andre Ward/Arthur Abraham: 10 Things We Learned from Home Depot Center

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1. The Bay Area Champs Stick Together

On the day of this fight Robert Guerrero said via Twitter:

Tonight my good friend @andreward defends his world title on @SHOsports. Support your #bayareachamps @filipinoflash #norcalboxing #boxing

I then asked him if he was going to be attending the fight in person. He then replied that he'd be watching it on TV. It also seemed that Guerrero was being honored by his hometown Gilroy by having his own day Robert Guerrero Day.

So who from the Bay Area champs was in attendance well the only one I saw was Nonito Donaire. Here you see Nonito with his expensive cool Dr. Dre headphones which he uses to not only listen to music but to talk on his phone as well. When you become a champ like him you can afford these cool gadgets.

What's next for Nonito Donaire like anyone knows not even himself. We'll just have to wait and see.

Andre Ward was also in person at Donaire's destruction of Montiel to support Donaire in his fight as well.

So the Bay Area champs do stick together and support each other as they should.

2. Al Bernstein's Championship Belt

If Al Bernstein designed his own championship belt it would probably have this cool logo of the No. 1 pound-for-pound pizza in the world Lou Malnatis on it in place of the WBC logo.

What does the great boxing expert do before getting on camera to school the millions of fans watching at home about the sport of boxing? He eats his favorite pizza with his fellow Chicago native buddy KING J.

Just how special is this pizza? It is so special that KING J had it flown in from Chicago and it was escorted by the Home Depot Center security to Al Bernstein ringside literally.

But did Al Bernstein and KING J share this pizza with anyone else? Let's see......

3. The Classy Jimmy Lennon Jr. Gains A Few Pounds

This picture is hilarious and it says so much, so you can make your own description or caption for this one.

I will however point out that the Classy Jimmy Lennon Jr. is a LA native who is used to the health-nut, weak-tasting LA pizza and that is probably why he is so trim and lean while the two biggest guys in this picture are Chicago natives.

Also Lou Malnatis if you want to hook us up with some free pizzas for the shout out then I guess we will have to accept that offer WINK.

4. Antonio Tarver Is Getting a Facial Before Going on Camera

Antonio Tarver who may be best known for being the former lineal light heavyweight champion knocking out Roy Jones Jr, or being the star of Rocky Balboa, is seen here getting something done to his face and even tho I am quite the metro-sexual I can not explain what exactly is going on in this photo.

I chatted with Tarver about several things and it turns out he is actually a cool guy with a good sense of humor.

He told me he will hop on plane to Australia the next day to do a four city promo tour to hype his fight with Danny Green in July.

I asked him if he was concerned about Green's alleged use of illegal hand-wraps and like a true bad-a** he replies as long as he gets to use the same illegal stuff then it's on. If he uses bricks give me the same bricks and we still have a fight on.

5. Chris Arreola Is More Focused and More in Shape

Arreola defeated his opponent Nagy Aguilera with ease by a one sided beat down TKO in the third round.

Arreola has often been criticized for coming in overweight to his fights and many of the media and fans took notice to a much fit body this time and his performance also reflected this new more focused mentality as well.

Here you see a picture of the media interviewing him after the fight as he's walking to the locker room. Arreola was making jokes about how he has to stop eating and going to the strip club during training camps.

Arreola is so focused and serious on his boxing career that he is already stepping back into the ring just two weeks later against Kendrick Releford on Friday May 27th in Reno, Nevada.

This is how the good ole days of boxing was with real contenders and champions fighting back to back right away instead of just once or twice a year.

Wait until you see Chris Arreola's dad in the next picture!

6. Chris Arreola's Dad.........Yeah It's Really Him

So after the fight I was talking with Tarver again ringside and then this man who looked like a Mexican Cowboy came up to us and asked did we see his son Chris Arreola fight tonight?

Both me and Tarver said hell no you are not Chris Arreola's dad.

I then asked him where do you live and he said LA. I said wrong Chris Arreola is from Riverside.

Obviously we did not believe him because one would assume Arreola's dad would have to be some huge big guy right?

So finally Arreola's trainer Henry Ramirez comes over to tell us that this man is indeed Chris' dad.

Also if we are keeping it real doesn't Chris look older than this man?

7. UFC Got No Love at This Fight

Between fights there were auctions where they were auctioning off a big plaque of UFC's biggest stars autographs.

Much of the crowd did not approve that they do this at a boxing match and booed at the idea of doing so.

I was a bit distracted and I was looking at something else inside the ring instead of the UFC autographed plaque.

The plaque was sold for about $4,000 and it had everyone's John Hancock from Brock Lesnar to GSP.

8. Name This Notorious LA Sports Icon

So apparently in LA this guy is a notorious icon at the sports events. I've seen him at Lakers games, Dodgers games and at several fights in LA.

He has a very extreme flamboyant choice of style when it comes to his clothes, hair and voice.

He has tons of energy and passion and for some reason he even gets on the mic and hypes the crowd up and announces fights as well.

Who is this man you ask? You tell me I'm a Chicago native and LA transplant.

9. Andre Ward's Pre-Fight Interview with Jim Gray

If you are a true fight fan then you are well aware of Jim Gray's notorious interviews.

Many consider Gray's interviews to be everything from extremely dull to extremely obvious or extremely rude.

Gray often asks questions that really press and even piss off the fighters to the point where they do not even want to talk to him anymore.

I was waiting in the Showtime production room for more than a hour because Andre Ward was stuck in traffic on his way to the Home Depot Center.

I was told that Gray already offended Arthur Abraham by calling him desperate in his fight with Ward.

I could just imagine how this interview with Ward would go down.

Ward apparently was not cooperative in coming into this room to be interviewed with Gray so we ended up waiting another hour or so before he finally came in after getting his hands taped.

Ward put his face right up to Gray's mic and waited for the questions.

Soon as he answered them he left the room. He appeared to be fully focused on the fight and nothing else.

It was really cool to see what really goes on behind these notorious interviews and it was extremely insightful.

10. Andre Ward Does the Post-Fight Conference Kobe Style

As you can see in this photo Andre Ward did his post fight conference Kobe Bryant style with his little daughter and wifey eventually sitting next to him.

Much of the media and fans were supportive of Ward in the conference.

Ward explained that Abraham hits really hard and has heavy hands but he was never hurt in the fight.

Ward also stated that he planned to attack the body more but the referee did not allow him to attack the body as planned and that may be why the fight went the full distance.

He also explained that ever since he was a boy he was taught to hit and not be hit and that getting hit is not cool.

When asked about for the first time not being the crowd's favorite as he was back home up in the Bay Area for his other fights he referenced Floyd Mayweather and how he is one of his favorite fighters and how he broke down Ricky Hatton and eventually knocked him out despite the overwhelmingly pro-Hatton British crowd that night.

A fan spoke out of turn and asked Ward if he would fight Mayweather and he like the rest of us looked at this man like he was on crack. Ward said no and explained that they are in two different weight classes.

Ward also stated that his goal is to capture the WBC belt for he felt it is the most recognized and prestigious belt out there.