Ward Beats Froch: Why a Fight with Lucian Bute Still Won't Make Him a Superstar

On Saturday night, Andre Ward beat Carl Froch to win the Super Six Boxing Classic, and the evening couldn't have gone better unless he had scored a knockout.

There was a competent referee in the ring, a majority of the judges scored the fight well, and the fight was enjoyable.  The right man even got his hand raised, and his opponent made no excuse for why he didn't win.

It was boxing at its best.  Now as Ward enjoys his victory and the years it took to reach this point, fans are already looking on to the next match.  

With the money that Showtime has invested in Ward, they will probably try to lock up his next fight. They can do it, too, especially because they have his next most logical opponent locked into a contract.

Lucian Bute is the only super middleweight who, even though he is one of the best in the world, didn't fight in Showtime's round-robin tournament.  Realizing that the winner needed someone else to fight after the Super Six, he was signed so they could make the match happen.

Now after Ward takes some time off, it probably will.

And as much as Ward's stock has risen and as much as the fight is intriguing, it won't make Ward a superstar.  If tonight couldn't, then a fight with Bute won't, either.  It is a problem that Ward has to deal with on several levels, because he just doesn't have what it takes to become a natural superstar.

That isn't to say he can't become one someday.  Just that it will take a bit more effort than some.

Ward's first problem is that he doesn't have a unique story.  With Mayweather, it is the fact that his father trained him from a boy to be the best boxer in the world.  For Pacquiao, it is because he fought while trying to pull himself out of poverty.

Ward doesn't have such a story.  He may be an Olympic gold medalist, but he doesn't have the charismatic personality needed to use that as a marketing tool.

The second problem is that he isn't the biggest puncher in the sport.  Fans love knockouts, and if Ward could deliver them, he would have an instant fanbase.  As he doesn't, it will take more than just winning fights to connect with the casual fans.

He needs to fight a real name in the sport and to do that he needs to move up in weight.

That is because if Ward wants to make a name for himself and become a boxing superstar, he needs to fight Bernard Hopkins.

Hopkins is the perfect opponent for Ward, who just stamped himself into boxing's current top 10 fighters and is a win or two away from a Hall of Fame career.  He is a cagey veteran who is still seen as a top dog and has a name himself.

Even better, Hopkins' loss against Chad Dawson has been overturned, so Ward has a chance of being the first man to beat Hopkins in over three years, with the last being the former super middleweight king, Joe Calzaghe.  

However, to become a true boxing superstar, Ward will need to do what Calzaghe and a few others who beat Hopkins had trouble doing.  He needs to beat him decisively.

If he can do that, Ward just might be able to stake a claim as a true boxing superstar.

So while Ward may be happy with his long road to victory, the hard work is just beginning.