By William Mackay: Former WBC super middleweight champion Carl Froch (26-1, 20 KO’s) is picking Allan Green (29-1, 20 KO’s) to upset World Boxing Association super middleweight champion Andre Ward (21-0, 13 KO’s) this Saturday night in the stage 2 part of the Super Six tournament. Froch, 32, is going against the flow of the general boxing public in picking the 30-year-old Green to win this fight, because most boxing experts and fans see this as a clear cut win for Ward.

Even Froch’s Super Six counterparts, Mikkel Kessler, Andre Dirrell and Arthur Abraham, feel that Ward will win the fight. However, it’s not really surprising that Froch is picking Green to win because he’s said in the past that he was impressed with his power and his overall boxing skills.

Who knows whether Froch has seen Green’s fights against Edison Miranda and Tarvis Simms, which as it turns out, is Green’s best opposition on his 30-fight resume. If Froch had seen those fights, he may have changed his opinion about who he thinks will win this Saturday.

Green was easily beaten by Miranda, knocked down twice and almost knocked out in the 10th. Green was getting pummeled at the time the bell sounded to end the fight. Had there been another 30-45 seconds in the round, it’s very likely Green would have been finished off by Miranda.

And in Green’s last fight against 38-year-old Simms, Green was hit early and often and showed very little defense in the fight. Green looked poor in the fight, and it was something that makes you wonder about his ability to handle the top tier opponents he’ll be dealing with in the Super Six tourney. Green looked little better than Simms and a lot worse than Miranda.

Froch, speaking about the Green-Ward fight, said “It’s too close to call, and in a close one, I always lean towards the puncher and Green is a big puncher and Ward isn’t. The Americans are so pro Ward and Dirrell that I’d like Green to win. I think it would spice things up if he knocked Ward out.”

That’s nice that Froch is hoping that Green will win, but that doesn’t change anything. Green looked horrible against his two best opponents during his career and that suggests that he’ll be way in over his head in this fight and will likely get badly schooled and probably stopped by Ward.

Both Kessler and Dirrell think that Ward is a smarter fighter and will beat Green because of that. Abraham thinks that Green will be a constant threat to Ward because of his power but thinks that Ward will ultimately triumph.

It would make things interesting if Green was to beat Ward, because that would tighten things up in the Super Six tournament. But it’s not very realistic given how little experience Green has and how poorly he fought in his fights against Miranda and Simms.

I think Green would have a lot of problems with non-Super Six contenders like Denis Inkin, Sakio Bika, Miranda, Librado Andrade, Marcus Johnson, Fulgencio Zuniga, and Karoly Balzsay. I think Green would be lucky to beat those guys, much less Ward or any of the other Super Six contestants.