Hamilton City, Claudelands Showgrounds: Ringside: Chants of Tua! Tua go up! The ring announcer gets an A plus for animation. Never quite seen or heard a ring announcer throw himself around the ring with so much vigour and enthusiasm in introducing fighters. Fair to say he is an excitable type of chap.
Alexander Ustinov ring walk: All you can really say about the man is he is one very big piece of humanity. His ring walk music of the Russian variety is music not often heard in this part of the world. He leaps the top rope of the ring with ease and that impressed the hell out of the crowd. At 6ft 8 and 139 kilograms (according to ring announcer) his immensity makes him a proposition for the sheer fact of his immensity – he carries no excess weight and appears in exceptional condition.
As was expected, WBA super middleweight champion Andre Ward (27-0, 14 KO’s) took the bigger, slower Edwin Rodriguez (24-1, 16 KO’s) to school tonight in pounding out a dominating 12 round unanimous decision at the Citizens Business Bank Arena, in Ontario, California, USA. The judges scored it 118-106, 117-107 and 116-108.
Vyacheslav Glazkov (16-0, 11 KO’s) defeated the shorter replacement opponent Garrett Wilson (13-7-1, 6 KO’s) by a 10 round unanimous decision that was a little more competitive than the scores suggested on Saturday at the Turning Stone Resort & Casino, in Verona, New York, USA. Wilson, a cruiserweight that was picked out to replace heavyweight Tomasz Adamek, seemed to energize the Verona crowd with huge heart in trying to win against a much bigger fighter than him in Glazkov. The judges scored the fight 97-93, 98-92, 99-91.
Hamilton New Zealand was the scene of a battle of differing proportions—6’8” Belarussian Alexander Ustinov squared off against Kiwi Samoan 5’9” David Tua who also gave up 50 lbs in weight.
Once again, come this Saturday night at the Citizens Business Bank Arena, Ontario, CA, fans will be treated to one of those battles where “Someone’s ‘O’ has got to go”. HBO’s main event will feature Andre S.O.G. Ward, 26-0-0 (KO14) versus Dominican Republic’s Edwin “La Bomba” Rodriquez 24-0-0 (KO16).
I’ve seen Gennady Golovkin fight about 6 times. Each time I’ve watched him on television (on 4 of the 6 occasions), Golovkin has been spectacular. I go to see this guy fight live twice, and while the results were great for Golovkin, I feel like I got the short end of the stick. WHY ME? 
It will have been just over 14 months since the last time Andre Ward graced the HBO airwaves as a fighter when he enters the ring this Saturday to face unbeaten Edwin Rodriguez.