By William Mackay: Super middleweight contender Allan Green (29-1, 20 KO’s) will be stepping in to replace recently beaten Jermain Taylor in the Super Six tournament. Green, 30, has the unfortunate luck of having to face unbeaten Andre Ward who is coming off a sensational 11 round technical decision win over former World Boxing Association super middleweight champion Mikkel Kessler in November.

Green was supposed to be fighting super middleweight contender Sakio Bika in a fight that would determine who the replacement for Taylor would be for the Super Six tourney. However, Bika pulled out of the fight for some reason leaving Green to move forward and fill Taylor’s vacated position.

Taylor opted to pull out of the tourney after suffering a bad 12th round knockout loss to Arthur Abraham on October 17th.Taylor was dropped by a right hand and fell straight back on the canvas. This was Taylor’s second consecutive knockout and third in his last five fights. It was clear that Taylor needed a break to recover from the knockout defeats.

Green has his work cut out for him in the tourney. After facing Ward on April 17th, Green will then have to take on Kessler in his 2nd fight of the tourney. Green has zero points because he’s filling Taylor’s spot, who had no points because of loss to Abraham.

Green is ranked #3 WBO, #5, IBF, #5 WBC and #12 WBA super middleweight division. However, Green has never beaten a first tier opponent during his eight year pro career and will be taking a huge step up. In Green’s only attempt at facing a top fighter, Green lost a lopsided 10 round decision over Edison Miranda in March 2007.

Green seemed paralyzed in that fight, looking really cautious and letting his hands go. Green did knock Miranda down in the 8th, but it looked to be more of a case of a flash knockdown than a legitimate one. In the 10th, Miranda poured it on and knocked Green down twice in the round.

Green’s best wins of his career have come against Anthony Bonsante, Jaidon Codrington, Darrell Woods, Ruben Williams, Sherwin Davis, Carl Daniels and Donny McCrary. Green has excellent hand speed, good power and nice jab. Offensively, Green has the tools to compete in the Super Six tourney.

However, Green has a lot to prove and it’s going to be interesting to see if he has what it takes to compete at this level. Green failed miserably in his biggest test of his career against Miranda, which isn’t a good sign given that Miranda was totally dominated by Ward last year. In effect, what we could end up seeing is Green struggling just as bad as Taylor, despite having good offensive tools. Given Green’s lack of experience and his poor showing against Miranda, I suspect that Green will get blown out of the water by Ward in April and likely stopped. Green will make it interesting at times in the fight, but I can’t see him winning one round. If he tries to open up offensively, Ward will catch him with a big shot and stop him.