Green-Ward: Does Allan have the boxing skills to beat Andre?

By Jim Dower: Allan Green (29-1, 20 KO’s) has a tough assignment ahead of him in challenging WBA super middleweight champion Andre Ward (21-0, 13 KO’s) next month on June 19th in their stage 3 Super Six tournament fight. Green, 30, thinks that Ward doesn’t want to fight him for some reason. Ward re-injured his surgically repaired knee recently and needed more time to heal before his Super Six tourney fight against Green. Even though he has few notable wins in his eight year pro career, Green is supremely confident about his abilities, saying “I hit a lot harder than Andre Ward. I can afford to make a mistake, he cannot. There is nobody in the tournament that can beat me. Nobody.”

Green is still green in terms of experience and it will be interesting to see if he can back up his bold talk. Confidence doesn’t always translate into success in life and Green could be just another fighter who has an inflated opinion about themselves. Whatever the case, he’s going to have to fight much better than he did in his fights against Edison Miranda and Tarvis Simms in the past. Green didn’t show Super Six talent in those two fights and the sad thing is those were Green’s two toughest opponents of his career.

Miranda beat Green by a 10 round decision in 2007, knocking him to the canvas a couple of times in the 10th. Ward easily defeated Miranda last year by a one-sided 12 round decision in May. This could meaningless or it could be a sign that Green is going to be way in over his head against the younger, 25-year-old Ward. We’ll have to see, but it does show you how the two fighters have done against a common opponent. Green may have a little power in his shots but it’s difficult to tell how much because his opposition has been mostly 2nd and 3rd tier fighters for the most part during his eight year career.

What we do know is that Green failed to knock out Simms and Miranda and his shots had no effect on either of them. Green also fought rather timidly against both fighters, as if he was afraid to get hit. It’s understandable against the hard hitting Miranda but less understandable against Simms, who only has 11 knockouts on his record among his 25 wins.

Green may have to depend more on his boxing skills in this fight than his power if he wants to win. Ward has an excellent chin and if Green goes looking for a knockout, he could run into one of Ward’s big shots. He also could end up missing a lot because Ward likes to duck and dodge punches. He’s not easy to hit and probably the worst fighter that a knockout puncher would want to be facing. Green needs to focus on just trying to make contact and see if he can out-box Ward rather than wasting his time by trying to stop him.

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