At the conference call for Andre Ward vs. Sakio Bika, Ward answered the question about why his fight with Andre Dirrell didn’t go down as planned.

Why aren’t you fighting Andre Dirrell on Saturday night?

“I think Andre Dirrell’s team has already said why we’re not fighting Saturday night. Apparently, Andre’s got some neurological issues and I’ll leave it at that. I think with the writers and the media it’s their job to be able to figure out what’s true and not true and I just have to take whatever comes. I take Dirrell at his word and I hope he gets better soon and that we can see him back in the ring.

When you sign a contract it’s a binding agreement and we were legally bound to fight Dirrell in our third fight. Personally, it’s not something you want to do; that’s a friend of yours, your family knows one another. It’s not really an ideal situation. But at the end of the day I’ve been fighting for a long time and I was prepared to do what I agreed to do. I think some of the fans blew things out of proportion. A lot of people weren’t talking and there really wasn’t much to say and it would have probably just made things worse.

I think it’s unfortunate people think Dirrell and I were trying to take the fight off the table and that we were working together. That’s personally not who I am. I was always going to do what I had to do.

I’m just as hungry as any opponent I’m fighting. I’m just as desperate as any opponent I’m fighting. I take this game very, very seriously. Having a championship and defending it means the world to me. I’m sure Sakio thinks this is a huge opportunity for him but this is a huge opportunity for Andre Ward as well.

Becoming a great finisher like Sugar Ray Leonard is something we’re definitely working on and it’s something that’s going to keep showing up as we keep moving up and improving.

I don’t really have any outside distractions. I keep a low profile and I don’t need an entourage. The guys that are around me are either family or they have a job to do. So I keep a tight circle. I really don’t have a lot of people pulling on me. I just think people over the years know where I stand and we just kind of set the tone from there. At this stage in my career I just don’t really have a lot do deal with in terms of outside distractions.

At this point, Carl Froch and Arthur Abraham and Lucian Bute are non-factors. It’s all about Sakio Bika right now. I’ll take a line from Vince Lombardi: Success demands singleness of purpose. I’m locked in on Sakio Bika and Saturday night.

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