By Scott Gilfoid: Americans Andre Ward (22-0, 13 KO’s) and Andre Dirrell (19-1, 13 KO’s) will be fighting for the vacant World Boxing Council (WBC) super middleweight title that previously belonged to Mikkel Kessler on November 27th in their stage 3 Super Six tournament bout at a still to be determined venue. The WBC title was recently won by Kessler in his 12 round unanimous decision win over Carl Froch (26-1, 20 KO’s) in April.

Froch, 33, was hoping the WBC super middleweight title would be on the line when he meets former IBF middleweight champion Arthur Abraham (31-1, 25 KO’s) on the same night on November 27th, in Helsinki, Finland. However, the WBC decided instead to have Dirrell and Ward fight for the vacant WBC title. I think they made the right choice, because Abraham was totally dominated by Dirrell in March and ended up getting beaten by an 11th round disqualification.

For his part, Froch just lost the title recently to Kessler. Besides that, Froch struggled badly in winning a controversial 12 round split decision over Dirrell last year in October while fighting in front of a larger British crowd in Nottingham, England. I had Dirrell winning by a fairly lopsided score of eight rounds to three with one round even.

The WBC title will go along nicely with the winner of the Dirrell-Ward fight, because Ward already has the World Boxing Association title belt in his possession after beating Kessler for it last year in November. As such, the Dirrell vs. Ward winner will then have two super middleweight titles in their possession by the end of the fight on November 27th, and this will pretty much validate to the world that the Dirrell-Ward winner is the best fighter in the world.

Of course, the Dirrell-Ward winner will still need to prove themselves in the semifinals and finals of the tournament, but having both titles in one of their possession will help show the talent level of these two fighters.

It’s difficult to choose between Dirrell or Ward in picking a potential winner, because both of them are so talented and evenly matched. Some boxing fans think that Ward will have too much skill for Dirrell, especially on the inside. But I disagree with that. There’s nothing that Ward can bring to the table that Dirrell doesn’t already know how to neutralize with his amazing speed and defensive ability.