By Sean McDaniel: Both Andre Ward and Carl Froch are going to be well paid for tonight’s Super Six tournament fight at the Boardwalk Hall in Atlantic City, New Jersey. According to news from Dan Rafael, Froch will receive $600,000, in addition to money from UK television, while Ward will get $900,000.

Not bad money for two of the best fighters in the division. It’ll only get better for the winner of this fight. They have a lot of options for big fights, such Lucian Bute, Bernard Hopkins, Chad Dawson, Mikkel Kessler, and possibly some of the top middleweights like Sergio Martinez. The sky’s the limit for the winner of tonight’s fight.

Ward, 27, has the speed advantage against Froch, but he’ll have to find a way to nullify Froch’s long reach and his quick counter shots. Froch is a classic counter puncher and likes to return fire with sharp whipping arm punches when hit. He doesn’t tend to load up a lot when facing fast punchers, but he can when he’s got the lined up or backed against the ropes.

Ward is going to have to keep his guard up at all times because the fight can turn around quickly if he gets hit just right or if he starts to absorb heavy punishment. Ward seemed to come unglued in his fight against Sakio Bika earlier this year and looked almost discouraged when he couldn’t figure Bika out on the inside.

Instead of making the needed adjustments to take the fight to the outside against Bika as Bute and Joe Calzaghe did in their wins over him, Ward continued to try and fight Bika at close range all fight long. Its’ a credit to Ward’s excellent inside game that he was still able to beat Bika fighting on the inside, but it also made the fight a lot harder than it should have been had he made the needed adjustments an fought him on the outside.

If Ward is resistant to making changes tonight against Froch, he could end up losing the fight. He can’t stay stuck with one plan the entire fight against Froch and still win.