Ward makes his point heading into Saturday night's fight against Froch - Next

On the difference between his personalities in and out of the ring:

"When it's time to compete, I guess that the switch turns itself on. In terms of outside the ring, I live my life a certain way. All of it has to do with my foundation and my faith in God and the way that I feel like I want to represent him and to represent my family, but also, to represent the sport.

"For many, many years, fighters have been tagged as ignorant, and guys who just get in there and fight, but who can't hold a conversation with you. I do everything in my power to go against the grain against that type of stereotype, because it's not right.

"This is a sport that I've committed over half of my life to. When a fighter walks into the room, it's refreshing to see him get respect outside of what they do. I've run into people on the street who will say ignorant things just out of ignorance, like, 'hey, don't hit me.'

"But listen, man, I'm a God-fearing man, and I'm a family man. Talk to me with some respect. I'm not a barbarian. I get paid to do what I do. I don't walk around hitting people."

On the chip on his shoulder:

"Mentally that chip is going to allow me to go through or to walk through whatever I need to do to get my hand raised. It's a personal thing it's not a chip toward anybody.

"It's a personal thing and something that drives me and fuels me. It's one of the things that drives me. I think that to a degree, every fighter should have a healthy chip on his shoulder."

On his family:

"My wife is pregnant right now...She's three months. This is four [children] and we're done. I told her that every child that we have pushes my retirement party back a little bit farther, so that's it."

On how he uses his family as motivation for Froch:

"I literally tell myself that when I'm running. When I'm doing my roadwork. When I'm jumping rope. It's almost like he's in the way of me getting home.

"It may sound funny, but that's part of what motivates me. When we run late at night, or three in the morning or four in the morning, five in the morning, that's what I'm telling myself."

Photos by Tom Casino, Showtime

Lem Satterfield can be reached at lemuel.satterfield@gmail.com