Over the weekend, news broke of how ESPN had let go Andre Ward, the former champ no longer to commentate on fights for the network. Along with Max Kellerman, Ward was fired, this shaking up the sport more than a little. Tim Bradley, Ward’s co-commentator, was perhaps shocked more than most, as he said when speaking with Fight Hype.com.
“I’m just as shocked as you guys. I never saw this coming. I had no clue this was coming,” Bradley said. “After the show (the Jared Anderson-Charles Martin fight), we hear in our headsets, ‘Report to the green room.’ I’m looking at Dre, I’m like, ‘What’s going on?’ He didn’t say anything. He just was like, ‘Let’s go, our boss says we gotta get in there.’ I get in the room, and I’m like, ‘Man, did we mess up tonight? Did we do something wrong?’ And he just dropped the news on us, and I broke down right there.
“It’s been a journey, through the pandemic, all of it. We built this comradery between us as colleagues. And you can see it on air. Not having Dre there [now] is like a piece of us is missing. We mesh well together and that chemistry now is gonna be gone. I didn’t imagine this to happen, I don’t think anybody did. I’m gonna miss him dearly. He’s exceptional out there. Every time he’s on the mike, he’s always damn near perfect on the mike.”
Bradley, who had his contract renewed last year, says he is “torn” about wanting to carry on working for ESPN, this without his good friend and partner. It is odd that the powers that be at ESPN would choose to drop Ward, one of the finest, most observant boxing commentators out there. It was indeed a great partnership Ward and Bradley had, and now it’s gone. Bradley will be left to fly solo as he calls fights. Should Bradley continue working at ESPN, that is.
Again, a real shock. Bradley says he is still trying to come to terms with what happened.