By Scott Gilfoid: The upcoming September match-up between talented Americans Andre Ward and Andre Dirrell is such a waste of a fight. You’ve got clearly the two best fighters in the Super Six tournament taking each other on in the stage 3 round of the tourney instead of the finals, where it should be. It’s just too bad that one of these great fighters has to lose. I almost hope that the fight ends in a 12 round draw so I don’t have to see either of these great fighters lose.

Ward feels pretty much the same way I do, naturally. In East boxing’s On the Ropes program, Ward gave his thoughts about taking on Dirrell, his 2004 Olympic teammate, saying “First of all, I mean obviously this is not a fight that I’m yearning for. it’s not a fight that I’ve necessarily dreamed about and I would have loved for us to fight down the road and even worse case scenario in the finals of the Super Six, but it didn’t turn out that way.” I’m with you on that, Mr. Ward. I wanted this fight to take place in the finals so all the talent didn’t get wasted on each other instead of using it on the other European fighters.

Dirrell has looked like a young version of Roy Jones Jr. and Muhammad Ali in his two fights in the Super Six tournament, losing his first fight by a horrible 12 round split decision to Carl Froch from the UK, and then winning his second fight by a 11th round disqualification victory over Arthur Abraham. Dirrell showed an amazing blend of skills against both of his tournament opponents, hitting with big power, gliding around the ring effortlessly and making his opposition miss repeatedly.

Dirrell is probably the budding star of the Super Six right now, and poised for greatness. The only thing that’s separating Dirrell from becoming the new mega star in the boxing world is Ward. If Dirrell win this fight, it’s almost a given that he will wipe out the remaining opposition in the tourney and win the entire Super Six tournament. Once you get past Ward, the Super Six tournament opposition gets mighty soft.

Ward has looked out of this world in his two fights in the tournament, schooling both Mikkel Kessler and Allan Green. Both fights were so easy that there were almost boring to watch. Kessler had no clue how to fight Ward, and could do little all fight long. Allan Green was way out of his depth in his recent loss to Ward, and should be grateful that he didn’t end up getting knocked out by Ward.

Trying to pick the winner between Ward and Dirrell is next to impossible, because both fighters are so damn good. They’re like mirrored images of each other in many ways, and has great hand speed and power. Dirrell likes to move around more and use his jab to set up his shots. Ward, for his part, enjoys getting in close and battering his opponents on the inside to break them down.