By Jim Dower: WBA super middleweight champion Andre Ward (21-0, 13 KO’s) is going into his stage 2 Super Six tournament fight as the decided favorite against top contender Allan Green (29-1, 20 KO’s) on June 19th at the Oracle Arena, in Oakland, California. It’s not hard to see why the 26-year-old Ward would be considered the favorite in this fight.

Ward looked unbeatable in taking apart WBA super middleweight champion Mikkel Kessler by an 11 round technical decision in his first time out in the Super Six tournament last year. Ward went into the fight as an underdog and came out of it as the favorite to win the entire Super Six tournament.

Ward now has to prove that he’s the same fighter he was in that fight and will have to prove that he can beat a huge puncher with fast hands like the 30-year-old Green. Ward already proved last year that he can defeat a huge puncher in his one-sided win over Edison Miranda. But the difference this time out is that Green has Miranda-like power, but with much fast hands. Green’s hand speed is perhaps a notch faster than Ward’s and possibly about the same as fellow American contestant Andre Dirrell.

Green is much more offensive-minded than Dirrell and with his power, he makes his own opportunities happen when he makes contact. Ward showed a kind of reckless abandon in his fight with Kessler, often charging in with slashing attacks to land his shots. Kessler was often able to predict the attacks later in the fight and catch Ward coming forward. The problem for Kessler is that he didn’t have the needed power to land anything hard enough to hurt Ward, and turn him back. Green has the power to keep Ward much more honest and cautious. If Ward attacks like he did against Kessler, he could find himself in real trouble if Green is able to time him and catch him with huge left hooks and straight right hands as he’s coming in.

In Green’s last fight against Tarvis Simms last year in October, Green was able to land some huge shots as Simms was coming forward trying to land his shots. I give a lot of credit to Simms for having a heck of a chin in that fight. He took some amazing shots from Green and kept coming forward. We don’t know how good Ward’s chin is because he wasn’t really hit all that much in his fight with Miranda and in his fight with Kessler, he didn’t start to really get hit until later on in the fight when Kessler started to tire out.

Green will have the speed to land his shots early and late. Ward is going to have to be really careful when he attacks to try and pick up or duck the big swings from Green, because if he gets hit with too many of them, he’s going to be picking himself off the canvas wondering where he is. Ward needs to turn this fight into a boxing match and make Green come forward to try and initiate. if Ward can move constantly, fight off his back foot, he’ll have a good chance of out-pointing Green. However, if he goes after him like he did Kessler, I can see Green stopping him with one of his big shots.