Ward Displays Compassion for Smith

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    Andre WardAndre Ward proved that he is still a world-class fighter when he defeated Paul Smith last Saturday in his first fight back from a 19-month layoff.

    But he proved that he is a world-class person when he decided to return Smith’s agreed upon penalty money for coming in overweight at Friday’s weigh in, as reported by Dan Rafael of ESPN.com.

    Smith’s purse was $250,000, but he was fined 20% of his purse ($45,000) for weighing in at 176.4lbs, which was 4 pounds over the agreed-upon 172lb weight limit for the fight.

    Half of the penalty went to the California State Athletic Commission while the other half went to Ward.

    Smith agreed to weigh in on the morning of the fight at 181 pounds, but he ended up coming in over once again at 184 pounds. The stipulation for the morning weigh in said that Smith would pay $5,000 for every pound he was over, which meant he had to pay an additional $15,000 to Ward, bringing his purse to $165,000.

    Ward thoroughly outboxed Smith in front of his hometown crowd of Oakland, California at the Oracle Arena. The crowd was really into the fight, and so were celebrity athletes in attendance—Colin Kaepernick and Steph Curry.

    The extra poundage did nothing to help Smith in the fight, and if anything he appeared a little sluggish in the contest.

    Ward, who made $2 million for this fight, decided to give all of the penalty money back to Smith, this according to Rafael’s source with information on the issue.

    It truly was a standup move on Ward’s behalf. He has earned his reputation as an incredible fighter, he’s known to be a very intelligent person outside of the ring to those that have been fortunate enough to interview or spend time with him, and now we know just how far his compassion goes.

    The commission kept Smith’s $22,500 penalty from the original weigh in.