By Jim Dower: In the two fights that WBA super middleweight champion Andre Ward (22-0, 13 KO’s) has taken part in for the Super Six tournament, he’s been less than exciting in either of them despite winning both fights. It isn’t that Ward isn’t a good fighter. He’s certainly an excellent fighter with good overall skills. However, he has a way of fighting that is less than pleasing to watch because of all the clinching, smothering and infighting Ward tends to do.

In Ward’s first fight of the Super Six tournament against Mikkel Kessler, he often would throw a punch and then immediately follow it by grabbing Kessler in a tight clinch to prevent him from throwing anything back at him. It worked quite well, as Kessler was nearly helpless to get his own punches off with Ward constantly grabbing him after he would throw his own shots.

But it was incredibly dull to watch and made it hard for fans to see him as an interesting fighter to watch and rally behind. The punch and grab technique is never a popular one with boxing fans, and neither are fighters that like to smother and mug their opponents on the inside.

Those styles are often ones that put boxing fans to sleep and turn them off completely. Ward, naturally, would like to not only win the Super Six tournament but he’d also like to emerge as a mega star by the time it’s over.

However, the chances of Ward becoming a huge mega star won’t be nearly as good unless Ward learns how to fight in a more people pleasing style that boxing fans want to see. I’m sure Ward badly wants to earn the huge paydays that fighters like Floyd Mayweather Jr. and Manny Pacquiao regularly enjoy.

But he’s probably not going to be able to become a star like them unless he makes some small changes with his fighting style. Of course, Ward can stick with what works for him and continue to use his punch and clinch and smothering style of fighting. But if he keeps on fighting in this manner, he needs to realize that it won’t likely lead to him becoming the huge star that he wants to be.

The holding, the leaning, and the punch and grab style just doesn’t win over boxing fans and probably never will. To be sure, there are a few fighters that have used that style for a long time and found mostly success with it. However, those same fighters have not become huge stars that well-liked by large segments of the boxing public and who are able to get a lot of pay per view buys.

Ward didn’t use to fight in a smothering way before he started the Super Six tournament. He used to move a lot, throwing nice counters and put his punches together in an exciting way. But since the fight with Kessler, Ward has changed his style of fighting completely and looks like a whole different fighter now. He’s still winning, but he’s not looking exciting in winning.

This is the worst possible time that Ward could choose to start tinkering with his style to adopt the boring punch and grab technique and to become a smothering fighter. Ward needs to go back to what he was before if he wants to win over new fans in the Super Six tournament and move forward in trying to become a mega star in the sport.