By Scott Gilfoid: The general consensus seems to be that unbeaten American challenger Andre Ward (20-0, 13 KO’s) will be too inexperienced and green for World Boxing Association super middleweight champion Mikkel Kessler (42-1, 32 KO’s) in their Super Six tournament bout next month on November 21st, at the Oracle Arena, in Oakland, California. Boxing fans see Kessler out-boxing Ward and beating him by a one-sided 12 round decision or possibly knocking him out.

However, Ward could very well surprise a lot of people by out-boxing Kessler and giving him fits, just as the other American fighter in the Super Six tournament Andre Dirrell gave WBC super middleweight champion Carl Froch a ton of problems in their fight last weekend. Dirrell ended up losing the fight, but many people felt he did more than enough to win. Before the bout, no one – least of all the European boxing fans – had heard much about Dirrell, but afterwards they found themselves admiring his talent and blazing fast hands.

Ward, unbeknownst to many of the fans outside of the U.S., has excellent boxing skills, perhaps even better than Kessler. Ward certainly has better hand speed and a better punch assortment than Kessler. That’s not saying much, because Kessler is pretty basic in the amount of punches he throws and he’s also not a particularly fast puncher, although Kessler is certainly faster than his European counterparts Froch and Arthur Abraham.

Kessler is good when he’s fighting on the outside where he’s able to use his powerful jab, left hooks and right hands to inflict damage. But at closer range, Kessler becomes more human and is merely proficient. Ward, however, is excellent at fighting on the outside and especially on the inside, where he’s hard to hit with shots. Some experts seem to think that Kessler will be able to land his shots when Ward comes flying in to try and work at close range.

That may be true, but Kessler won’t be able to hit Ward all the time because he’s quite good at making his opponents miss with their shots. He’s not on the level of Dirrell, but then again who is? Ward is still plenty good enough to cause Kessler all kinds of problems when he comes at him to make it a close inside game.

Ward doesn’t get much credit for his power, but he’s a lot harder puncher than many people think he is. He might not be as powerful as Abraham, Dirrell, Kessler, Froch and Taylor, but he hits hard enough to inflict major damage if he’s allowed to get his shots off.

Ward is going to shock a lot of people on November 21st in not only beating Kessler but dominating him as well. Frankly, I see Kessler as a weaker version of WBC/WBO middleweight champion Kelly Pavlik. Kessler gets a lot of praise from boxing fans that see him as the best fighter in the super middleweight champion, but I don’t believe the hype. Kessler is more like a Pavlik-type fighter.

Kessler might be considered one of the best in the division, but that’s only because the division has a number of weaker fighters that Kessler has been able to beat and pad his record. In stepping up the level of his competition in 2007, Kessler was beaten by a 12 round decision by Joe Calzaghe. Kessler is a strong fighter, but he’s more of a limited brute than a skilled technician like Dirrell and Ward.