Dirrell: “I knew it [Ward’s win over Green] was going to be a clinic”

By Scott Gilfoid: Super Six contestant Andre Dirrell (19-1, 13 KO’s) was impressed with WBA super middleweight champion Andre Ward’s win over Super Six replacement opponent Allan Green (29-2, 20 KO’s) last Saturday night in Oakland, saying “I knew it was going to be a clinic. If Green didn’t bring damage to Ward early then he wasn’t going to do it at all. After the fourth round, I knew it was going to be a wrap.” Dirrell was so right. Green didn’t do the things he needed to do to win this fight, like stay off the ropes for one.

Green, 30, made it easy for Ward by letting him bull him to the ropes in many of the rounds and punish him on the inside. There was some things that Green could have done in that fight to have a better chance of winning, but he just failed to execute. Green didn’t let his hands go, wasted time trying to fight Ward on the inside and didn’t use his jab. Anytime you’re fighting a tough inside fighter like Ward, you have to move your wheels and throw a lot of jabs.

Green did neither. He fought like he was in quicksand most of the fight and let Ward do pretty much anything he wanted to in the fight. Green said after the fight that his legs weren’t there because he had over-trained, but he still should have been able to throw some punches. Even if Green’s legs weren’t there for the fight, he still should have opened up more with his offense, because he just made it too easy for Ward in this fight.

The judges gave Ward all 12 rounds, with each of them scoring the fight 120-108. That shows you have dominant Ward was in that fight. Right now, I can only see one fighter that has any chance of beating Ward and that’s the 26-year-old Dirrell. He’s faster, taller and better defensively and a better mover than Ward. Dirrell will not waste valuable time trying to fight on the inside like Green did. And he won’t be mauled in the same way that both the slower Green and Mikkel Kessler were in their fights with Ward. Dirrell will use his legs to move, and throw jabs to keep Ward off of him.

When Ward does come charging forward, Dirrell will light him up with punches, and then move away laterally to the left or the right to get out of the way of Ward. There’s really nothing Ward can show that Dirrell hasn’t seen before. Ward is very much like some of the pressure fighters that Dirrell easily beat early in his career like Mike Paschall, Victor Oganov and Curtis Stevens. Dirrell knows how to beat these kinds of fighters, so Ward is going to have to come up with another plan other just trying to mug Dirrell if he plans on beating him. What worked for Ward in his fights against Kessler and Green will not work against a talented fighter like Dirrell.

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