Ward vs. Green: Andre could ruin Allan’s chance to advance to the next level of the Super Six tournament

By Jason Kim: Allan Green (29-1, 20 KO’s) doesn’t have much of a margin for failure against WBA super middleweight champion Andre Ward (21-0, 13 KO’s) in their stage 2 Super Six fight on June 19th, in Oakland, California. Green, 30, is already entering the fight behind Ward with zero points because Green is replacing Jermain Taylor in the tournament. As such, Green has to win this fight to get to the semi finals of the tournament. Green will have one more fight in the first stages of the Super Six tournament but it will be pretty much meaningless for Green unless he can get by Ward on 6/19.

Green has a number of things going for him in this fight: superior power, better hand speed, slightly better height at 6’2” compared to the 6’1” Ward, and an unpredictable offense. A lot of boxing fans feel that Green is going to get really smoked in this fight by Ward, but I’m not so sure about that. Ward doesn’t like to get hit and Green hits hard enough to make Ward very cautious going into the fight.

If Ward isn’t taking the kinds of chances that he took in wins over Mikkel Kessler and Edison Miranda in his last two fights, then Ward becomes much more beatable. For him to win, he has to get in to land his shots and then escape to the outside before Green can respond with his own shots. Green would help himself a lot of he kept a steady jab going to prevent Ward from moving in really quick to land his shots. It would also help Green if he could move away and fight going backwards when Ward attempts to dart forward to land his shots.

Ward typically makes a quick decision and then scoots forward quickly to try and land. Green could foil those attacks by jabbing, moving and timing Ward’s attacks. Ward basically fought the same way the entire fight against Kessler in his first fight of the Super Six tournament. It was an easy 11 round technical decision win for Ward, who after discovering that Kessler had no inside game, basically punished him all fight long with fast attacks. Green has to use his hand speed advantage to keep Ward off of him.

If Ward gets hit with some hard shots that he doesn’t see coming, he’ll be more hesitant to attack Green so hard for the rest of the fight. Green has to get immediate respect from Ward and then keep punishing him when he comes at him. I wouldn’t advise for Green to do the attacking because Ward is an excellent counter puncher and seems to do really well when his opponents’ are coming at him trying to land their shots. But by waiting for Ward to come at him, Green can make Ward pay again and again with hard jabs and fast power shots. The key is for Green to use his fastest punches because he’s got to hit Ward with shots he can’t see coming.

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