FanHouse Edison Miranda

A former Olympic gold medalist, super middleweight Andre Ward knew that he was well-respected as a boxer.

But in lifting the 168-pound WBA crown from Denmark's Mikkel Kessler before his hometown crowd at Oracle Arena on Saturday night, the 25-year-old demonstrated his skills as a fighter.

Ward rose to 21-0 with 13 knockouts by defeating Kessler (42-2, 32 KOs), a man nicknamed "The Viking Warrior" and who was known for winning bouts on the road.

After their fight was stopped in the 11th round due to Kessler's bleeding cuts around both eyes -- ruled to have been caused by accidental head-butts -- Ward was declared the winner of a unanimous, 11th-round technical decision.

The matchup was the third in Group Stage One of Showtime's Super Six Super Middleweight World Boxing Classic, which is comprised of the premier athletes in the 168-pound division.

The two earlier Group Stage One matchups were won by Germany's Arthur Abraham and England's Carl Froch, respectively, over Arkansas' Jermain Taylor and Michigan's Andre Dirrell.

So the Europeans led 2-0 entering Ward's matchup, which he talked about with FanHouse during this Q&A on Monday.

A problem has developed concerning Saturday's 168-pound WBA title fight between champion Mikkel Kessler of Denmark and Andre Ward, the third bout of Showtime's Super Six Super Middleweight World Boxing Classic that is being fought at the Oracle Arena in the challenger's hometown of Oakland, Calif.

At least two judges and the referee for each matchup are to be from neutral territories, in accordance with contracts signed by each of the tournament's six fighters regarding the nationalities of the officials.

But during a press conference yesterday at Oakland's City Hall, Kessler's promoter, Wilfried Sauerland, said that the referee, Jack Riesse, and at least two of the three judges selected for the fight are from California, along with South African judge, Stanley Christodoulou, according to a report by the Associated Press.

Edison Miranda got back to his winning ways in a hurry, dominating Thursday night's clash of super middleweights with a first-round knockout over Francisco Sierra at the Tachi Palace Hotel & Casino in Lemoore, Calif.

In victory, accomplished at 2:16 of the round, the 168-pound Miranda scored his 29th knockout to improve to 33-4, successfully rebounding from May's unanimous decision loss to former Olympic gold medalist Andrew Ward.

The win also marked his first triumph under trainer Joe Goossen, brother of Miranda's promoter, Dan Goossen.

"When [Sierra] would throw a right hand, then he would drop his left hand, and I knew that that was the moment when I could throw my right hand and to land it," said Miranda, who has been training under Joe Goossen since June.

Elie Seckbach, the Embedded Correspondent, brings his exclusive video reporting to FanHouse. Check back regularly for more videos.

On Oct. 22, Edison Miranda will enter the ring to face Francisco Sierra for the NABO Super Middleweight Championship. Miranda has had a real rough life, when he was just a month old his mother abandoned him, leaving him with someone who would abuse him both physically and mentally.

When he was 9, Miranda set off to look for his mom only to be abandoned a second time. In this video, we catch up with Miranda at Joe Goossen's gym and talk to him about life, boxing and much more.

Check out the video after the jump.

Edison Miranda has demonstrated punching power throughout most of his professional boxing career.

He won his first 26 fights, with the initial 21 coming by way of knockout, and an incredible 16 of those being in the first round. However, he has had mixed results ever since with only six wins in his last 10 fights, suffering a unanimous decision loss to former Olympic gold medalist Andre Ward in April.

Showtime's Sports general manager, Ken Hershman, said that he is "thrilled" concerning the success of last weekend's two super middleweight bouts of the Super Six World Boxing Classic tournament, even as he expressed concern and well-wishes toward Jermain Taylor, who was diagnosed with a concussion following his 12th-round knockout loss to Germany's Arthur Abraham.

After losing to Abraham (31-0, 25 KOs) in a clash of former middleweight (160 pounds) champions, Taylor (28-4-1, 17 KOs) was hospitalized for a few days in Germany following their 168-pound battle.

German super middleweight Arthur Abraham is nicknamed "King."

And on Saturday before a partisan, sellout crowd of more than 14,000 at The O2 World Arena in Kreuzberg, Berlin, the 168-pounder crowned Jermain Taylor, stopping the Little Rock, Ark., resident in the 12th round of the clash of former middleweight (160 pounds) champions.

Abraham's 25th knockout came with 11 seconds left, after setting up a hard right hand with a short left, which deposited Taylor onto his back and stopped him cold.

In victory, the Armenian-born Abraham rose to 31-0 and increased the chances of achieving his goal of becoming a star on American soil, where he has fought only twice during his career.

Arthur Abraham wants to be an American icon in boxing.

Problem is, out of Abraham's 30 fights, only two have been outside of his adopted Germany, and only one of those contests was in the United States.

But on Oct. 17, Abraham hopes to score a big victory toward expanding his name worldwide when he takes on Jermain Taylor in a clash of former middleweight (160 pounds) champions.

It was Sept. 29, 2007, and there were many within the boisterous crowd of 10,127 who packed into Atlantic City's Boardwalk Hall who wondered if their hometown hero, Kelly Pavlik, would go down in the first defeat of his career.

Pavlik estimated that close to 8,000 of his faithful had traveled from his native Youngstown, Ohio, to support him. Pavlik could hear them as they screamed encouragement, even as he woozily sank to his stool, having been blasted to the canvas by nearly 20 unanswered punches from Jermain Taylor.

"Are you OK? Can you continue?" asked cornerman Jack Loew, Pavlik's trainer since he first laced up the gloves at age 9.

As the youngest competitor in the Super Six World Boxing Classic, 25-year-old Andre Ward is motivated by the prospect of earning the title of undisputed super middleweight (168 pounds) champion of the world.

"Being the best -- I've been dreaming about those kinds of things my whole life. This tournament gives me that opportunity," said Ward, of Oakland, CA., whose counterparts hail from Michigan, Arkansas, Denmark, England and Germany.