By William Mackay: According to Boxing Talk, unbeaten Andre Ward (22-0, 13 KO’s) will be facing Andre Dirrell (19-1, 13 KO’s) and Mikkel Kessler (43-2, 32 KO’s) will be fighting Allan Green (29-2, 20 KO’s) on September 25th in a Super Six tournament doubleheader with both fights occurring in different venues.
As of now, it’s unknown where the fights will be taking place. Ward, 26, defeated Green by lopsided 12 round unanimous decision last Saturday night in Oakland, California. Dirrell, 26, is coming off an 11 round disqualification win over Arthur Abraham on March 27th, in a fight that Dirrell was well ahead of at the time Abraham was disqualified for hammering Dirrell with a right hand after he slipped on the canvas.
Kessler, 31, was totally dominated by Ward in an 11 round technical decision loss in November of last year in his stage 1 Super Six tournament bout. Ward made Kessler looked slow, old and amateurish in the fight. However, Kessler came back in stage 2 bout to get the better of previously unbeaten Carl Froch, defeating him by a 12 round unanimous decision on April 24th to capture Froch’s WBC super-middleweight title.
Froch felt that he should have won the fight, but few boxing fans or writers agree with him. Green will have to fight a lot better than he did against Ward if he wants to beat Kessler. It takes good hand speed and a high work rate to beat Kessler.
Green may have excellent hand speed, but he’s never been known for having a good work rate. He could find himself getting dominated again and thus won’t be able to make it to the semifinals of the Super Six tournament. Most people would likely agree that Kessler is the one to pick in a bout between him and Green. Allan looked almost amateurish in losing to Ward, and didn’t show the type of skills needed to beat a quality fighter like Kessler.
The Ward-Dirrell fight could end up being the best fight of the night by far. Ward and Dirrell are both pretty evenly matched in terms of boxing skills. All the things that Ward has going for him, such as hand speed, defense and ring movement are cancelled out by Dirrell, who may be even better than Ward in each of these departments. However, Ward is mentally tough and hard to beat. Dirrell will have to use a perfect plan if he wants to beat Ward.
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