Allan Green: “He’s [Ward] never been in with a guy that has the firepower that I’ve got”

By Scott Gilfoid: Super Six tournament replacement opponent Allan Green (29-1, 20 KO’s) appears really confident about his chances against unbeaten Andre Ward (21-0, 13 KO’s) ahead of their April 17th Super Six tournament fight in Ward’s hometown of Oakland, California. In an article at Tulsa World, Green said this about his fight with Ward: “He’s [Ward] never been in with a guy that has the firepower that I have. We’ll find out what he’s made of immediately.”

I disagree. Ward has already beaten Colombian knockout artist Edison Miranda (33-4, 29 KO’s) by a lopsided 12 round decision last year in May 2009, and I think Miranda is a lot bigger puncher than Green. Miranda also has a 10 round decision win over Green in March 2007. Green does have good power, maybe even better than Mikkel Kessler, a recent victim of Ward’s. However, Green seems to have problems letting his hands go when faced against a tough opponent.

Green not only looked bad in his loss to Miranda, but he also struggled badly against 38-year-old southpaw Tarvis Simms in October, beating him by a 10 round decision but having problems throwing punches. Green looked uncomfortable with Simm’s southpaw stance and labored to a decision in that fight.

This is someone that Green should have been able to dominate, yet he struggled all the way though that fight and failed to impress, in my view. Ward is a lot faster than Simms and much craftier fighter. If Green has the same problems letting his punches go against Ward, this fight will likely end very early with Ward knocking Green out without too many problems.
Green, 30, is replacing former WBC/WBO middleweight champion Jermain Taylor, who was viciously knocked out in the 12th round by Arthur Abraham on October 17th in the Super Six tournament.

Taylor, who has been stopped in back to back fights, decided to pull out of the Super Six tournament rather than take a risk of being knocked out again in future fights. Green was supposed to fight super middleweight contender Sakio Bika on a one fight box-off to determine who the alternate would be to replace Taylor in the Super Six tourney, but Bika cancelled the fight for some reason.

You can consider that a good luck omen or a bad one for Green, because by taking part in the Super Six tourney, he could end up getting badly exposed and possibly sent packing if he’s beaten by Ward in their stage 2 fight and Mikkel Kessler in the stage 3 part of the Super Six tournament. If Green loses both of those fights, he will be eliminated from the tournament and along with it his career will likely take a huge hit as well.

Up until now, Green’s career has been in slow motion. Although he’s ranked high at number #3 WBO, #5 IBF and #12 WBA, Green has faced few top fighters during his eight year pro career. Green lost to Miranda, beat Simms, a fringe contender, and his other notable wins have come against Jaidon Codrington, Donny McCrary, Anthony Bonsante, Darrell Woods, Sherwin Davis, and Rubin Williams.

Those are all good fighters, but not the kind of opponents that I would have liked to have seen Green fighting at this advanced stage in his career. I think Green is a good fighter, but I personally put him at number #9 in the division behind Ward, Lucian Bute, Carl Froch, Kessler, Abraham, Andre Dirrell, Daniel Jacobs, and Miranda.

I’m also not sure if Green could beat other top super middleweights like Bika, Adonis Stevenson, Denis Inkin, Robert Stieglitz, Librado Andrade, Dimitri Sartison, and Karoly Balzsay. I think some of those fighters could possibly beat Green if matched against him.

11 Responses to “Allan Green: “He’s [Ward] never been in with a guy that has the firepower that I’ve got””