By Keith Idec

Andre Ward can’t quite pinpoint why his critics haven’t given him the full credit he believes he deserves.

The undefeated former super middleweight champion admits, though, that he spends a lot less time these days worrying about what they think of him. Watching boxing predecessors experience similar struggles with sometimes-fickle fight fans and media has helped him come to terms with whatever skeptics think.

“I’ve seen it throughout boxing history,” Ward said before a press conference Tuesday in Manhattan to publicize his November 19 showdown with Sergey Kovalev. “Some guys get more credit than maybe they should get. Certain guys, where in my opinion it’s obvious, like, ‘He’s the man.’ And people are like, ‘Ah, well, he didn’t …’ I don’t know. That’s a question for those individuals. But again, as you grow and mature it’s not even about that. I’m secure in who I am as a fighter. I’m secure in who I am as a man. And, you know, going through the lawsuit period, seeing some of the things that were written, that I felt were maybe unjust or inaccurate – you get to a point where you don’t need outside validation.”

Ward went on to make it clear that, unlike some contemporaries claim, he does care what’s written and said about him. That’s among the reasons, Wards says, that beating Kovalev is so important to the Hayward, California, native’s legacy.

“It’s not like you don’t care about it,” Ward said. “I’m human. I appreciate things when they’re written positive about me. And I’m not an athlete that feels like you can’t write negative about me. If I do something, or something happens and it’s legitimate criticism, yeah, go for it. I may not like it, but I’ve gotta eat it. But what you don’t condone and what you don’t like, even taking myself out of the equation, is when it’s negative for the sake of being negative. Or this writer is close to this promoter. I just feel like there’s no place for that in boxing. I don’t believe in it. I don’t like it. And because I speak out against it, you know, sometimes individuals don’t like it.

“But I’m not a person looking for enemies. I like friends. I’d like to have as many friends as possible, like everybody else. But at the same time, I’m a man of integrity and I try to be a man that stands for something. And I just feel like there’s no place for that. So again, I don’t focus on [receiving validation]. When I was younger, I did. I don’t focus on that. I just keep working, keep working. And hopefully, one day I hope I can look back and say, ‘Man, you had a heck of a career, kid.’ ”

The 32-year-old Ward (30-0, 15 KOs), a 2004 Olympic gold medalist, and the 33-year-old Kovalev (30-0-1, 26 KOs), the IBF/WBA/WBO light heavyweight champion, will meet 10 weeks from Saturday in an HBO Pay-Per-View main event at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas. Ward is listed as a slight favorite (-145) over Kovalev (+115) by numerous Internet sports books.

Keith Idec covers boxing for The Record and Herald News, of Woodland Park, N.J., and BoxingScene.com. He can be reached on Twitter @Idecboxing.