By Scott Gilfoid: Americans Andre Dirrell (19-1, 13 KO’s) and Andre Ward (21-0, 13 KO’s) will meet up in the stage 3 part of the Super Six tournament on September 25th, according to Live Fight. However, the location of the fight is still up in the air. Dirrell’s promoter Gary Shaw doesn’t want the fight to take place in Ward’s home city of Oakland, California, saying “It will not be in Oakland. That will not be the venue. I’m leaning toward Detroit and Joe Louis Arena, because I think the Ward vs. Dirrell fight, with the proper time to prepare, would be even bigger than Dirrell-Abraham.”

Ward has already fought once in Oakland against Mikkel Kessler, and will be fighting in Oakland once again in his stage 2 Super Six bout against fellow American Allan Green on June 19th. In the meantime, Dirrell has already fought once outside of the United States, losing a controversial 12 round split decision against British fighter Carl Froch in his home city of Nottingham, England.

In Dirrell’s last fight, he defeated German based Armenian Arthur Abraham by a 11th round disqualification victory at the Joe Louis Arena, in Detroit, Michigan. This was effectively a home town fight for Dirrell, who comes from Flint, Michigan, which is a little over an hour away from Detroit. Dirrell’s promoter Gary Shaw doesn’t see it as fair that Ward should be able to have his first three Super Six tournament bouts at home without having to travel to another city like the other Super Six participants have to.

Dirrell and Ward are turning out to be two of the biggest surprises in the Super Six tournament. Both fighters came into the tournament with little experience against top level opposition and neither was expected to win. However, Dirrell and Ward have pretty much become the biggest names in the tournament. Ward has his second fight in June, but if he looks as good as he did in beating Kessler last November, he will continue to be a fighter that catches a lot of attention.

Dirrell, despite losing his first fight against Froch, has looked very impressive in both of his Super Six fights. The skills that Dirrell has showed both on defense and offense have been extraordinary to say the least. It’s too bad that Dirrell and Ward will be forced to fight each other so soon in the tournament before they have a chance to wipe out the rest of the opposition.

Based on what I’ve seen of the talented fighters, I see them as easily the two best fighters in the tournament. Dirrell should be able to get by Ward in their fight. Ward is a very good fighter, but he doesn’t have the blinding hand speed or the defense of the talented Dirrell.