By Scott Gilfoid: With little more than a month go go before their stage 3 Super Six tournament fight, there still isn’t a venue for the super fight between talented stars Andre Dirrell (19-1, 13 KO’s) and WBA super middleweight champion Andre Ward (21-0, 13 KO’s). All we have right now is a date for the fight, the September 25th, and even that is now less than certain. Ward, 26, has already fought twice at home in Oakland, California, and it would seem less than fair if he’s allowed to fight for a third time in a row at home against Dirrell. If Ward is concerned about not wanting to fight Dirrell in Detroit, Michigan, then the two fighters need to agree on a neutral venue such as Las Vegas, Nevada or another location that they might be able to draw a decent number of fans to see them. I think it would be much smarter for Dirrell and Ward to fight in one of their home towns, because at least it would ensure a nice crowd.
They might want to flip for it just to take the democratic approach to picking the site. I think Dirrell deserves to have the fight at home, because he’s only fought at home once during the Super Six tournament, and lost a controversial 12 round decision to Carl Froch in the British fighters home town, and Dirrell is the one that needs a win to get in the Super Six tournament. Ward has already earned a semifinal spot due to his two prior wins against Mikkel Kessler and Allan Green.
Dirrell and Ward have the best boxing skills and talent in the Super Six tourney. Both of them are similar to a young Floyd Mayweather Jr. and Roy Jones Jr. in talent. Dirrell has the hand speed of Jones and Mayweather, whereas Ward is slower and a lot like a younger version of Bernard Hopkins. In looking at last Saturday night’s fight between light heavyweights Chad Dawson and Jean Pascal, I couldn’t help wonder what Dirrell and Ward would have done to those two fighters if they had been in their with them. I think Dirrell would have schooled both of them, and Ward would have likely beaten them both up on the inside. It would have been great to see those two taking on the perceived two best fighters in the light heavyweight division.
It’s difficult to imagine who will come out the winner in the Dirrell vs. Ward fight, because both of them are so equal and so perfect. It’s like having two top of the line Ferrari’s racing each other. You can’t say for sure who’s going to win but you know you’re going to be seeing the best in the super middleweight division on that night. Boxing fans are going to be in for a real treat when they see the talent of Dirrell and Ward mixing it up. Anything that comes after this fight will pale in comparison. I think Dirrell can win it if he stays away from Ward and boxes him from the outside. But that’s easier said than done.
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