Super Middleweight Mayhem: Andre Ward & the Super Six Tournament
By Gina L. Caliboso
Andre “S.O.G.” Ward, 22-0, 13 KO’s came out swinging against Allan Green, 29-2, 20 KO’s, in his last appearance in the Super Six Boxing Classic tournament.
And as much as I love the drama unfolding, I can definitely offer that Ward is in it to win it. It sounds just as bad to say: “Don’t hate the player, hate the game.” Sad attempt at hip jargon if you can even call it that but there is no doubt in my mind that Ward has elevated his status and successfully defended his WBA Super Middleweight title in convincing fashion.
If all bouts take place as scheduled, I predict that Ward will reign supreme as the winner of the entire tournament.
Ward fought an excellent fight against the lackluster Green. Upon his own admission, Green stated that he may have “over-trained” because of the fight delays, but regardless, Ward came out with the right game plan. He detected that Green was not at his best and continued to press him on the inside and against the ropes.
Ward wore down Green on the inside and executed power punches against him that left no doubt to the judges’ unanimous decision over 12 rounds. I had stated that I wanted to see what Green could do in the arena in order to win a title belt. Even though he came in to replace Jermain Taylor, Green had the perfect opportunity to show and prove his place amongst the best of the super middleweights.
Regardless, he didn’t come in as prepared as he needed to be and he must reassess and readjust as necessary to really put himself in the competition in Stage 3 of the tournament.
Green is set to face the very technical former world champion, Mikkel “Viking Warrior” Kessler, Carl Froch will face Arthur Abraham, and here’s the most highly anticipated and competitive fight I’m looking forward to watching. The Two Andre’s are set to face one another – Andre Ward versus Andre Dirrell, 19-1, 13 KO’s.
As far as the tournament standings go, Ward is now number one in the tournament with 4 points with his win over Green, followed by Abraham with 3 points, Kessler, Froch, and Dirrell all have 2 points, and Green has 0 points. Ward and Dirrell are both highly competitive talented fighters that can fight both orthodox and southpaw.
In his fight against Green, Ward did not switch to southpaw for any huge amount of time. I’d say that he may have adjusted to southpaw a few times, but not enough that affected the outcome of the fight. Ward is comfortable in both, but against Green, he showed an effective, solid, and powerful stance in orthodox.
Again, as Ward fought Kessler, one can observe that he is one fighter that just gets better once the fight goes deeper into the final rounds. Ward did not back down in his offense from either Kessler or Green and the judges recognized his overall dominance in ring generalship.
It’s going to be a great matchup for the two Andre’s. First, Dirrell has definitely had his fill in fighting against Europeans. In the first round, he faced a hostile crowd and possible judge favoritism when he fought against Froch in his hometown. I don’t really ever give American fighters much of a chance when they fight outside of the US.
For that matter, I also get upset that I’ve never seen European fighters fighting on American soil either. In his fight against Froch, Dirrell lost by split decision. In his second fight of the tournament, he fought against Abraham (on American soil I may add) and was awarded a DQ when Abraham threw a punch while he was down. As much as Ward has become better in his two fights, Dirrell has a few things to prove. He had the unfortunate luck of the European draw in his first two fights.
And now, against fellow American Ward, the two will stand toe to toe and it will be a battle. Among current active super middleweights, Dirrell ranks #2. Ward is currently ranked at #3.
So I just mentioned Dirrell and Ward as the #2 and #3 ranked super middleweight fighters. Standing at the top ranked #1 is one of my favorite fighters – a certain boxer from Quebec, Lucian “Le Tombeur” Bute, 26-0, 21 KO’s. As the current IBF Super Middleweight titleholder, Bute cannot go unmatched for too long. In his last outing against Edison “Pantera” Miranda, Bute executed a beautiful uppercut to Miranda’s chin and scored the 3rd round TKO.
I think Bute will find his next opponent in Ward because as I predict, Ward will be the winner of the Super Six tournament.
As the tournament is expected to go into 2011, I offer that Ward is one of the top competitors, if not the final winner of the Super Six. As long as he continues to keep each fight as just another fight and not cave into the pressure, he will successfully defend his WBC Super Middleweight title.
Ward will be facing a couple of title defenses. Until then, he just has Dirrell on the mind – the other Andre, but either way, he’ll not only defend his belt, but also be ready for just about anyone, including a future match with Bute, in order to solidly defend his place among the super middleweights.