By Jim Dower: It’s becoming increasingly clear that few boxing fans and writers are picking Andre Dirrell (19-1, 13 KO’s) to win in his semifinal Super Six tournament fight against Andre Ward (22-1, 13 KO’s). The fight still doesn’t have a venue, and it’s still listed as taking place on September 25th. That’s probably not going to happen now unless they come up with some breaking development in their negotiations for the venue. Fans seem to like Ward more in this fight because of how good he looked in beating his two previous Super Six tourney opponents Mikkel Kessler and Allan Green.

Ward showed good decision making and aggressiveness in both of the fights. He wasn’t afraid to take the fight to either of them, and didn’t get flustered or afraid when he would get hit every now and then. His defense was great, his hand speed excellent and his power good. Dirrell showed perhaps even better hand speed in his two fights against WBC super middleweight champion Carl Froch and Arthur Abraham.

The difference here is that Dirrell wasn’t as aggressive in attacking them, and didn’t throw as many hard power shots compared to Ward in his two fights in the tournament. Dirrell also seemed to react negatively when attacked, looking at the referee for help in the fight with Froch and looking frightened in the 10th and 11th when Abraham was coming after him hard to try and score a late knockout win. Some of what Dirrell’s problems could be from inexperience.

Dirrell really hadn’t fought a lot of competitive fights leading up to the Super Six tournament, and as such looked a little out of sorts when he was facing Froch, who coming after him hard trying to score a knockout. Dirrell responded with a lot of movement in the Froch fight, but forget to let his hands go and ended up losing the fight.

In the Abraham-Dirrell bout, Dirrell attacked with jabs and dominated Abraham for nine rounds. But when Abraham went after Dirrell in the 10th round, Dirrell looked nervous and worried as he ran around the ring trying to avoid getting hit by Abraham.

Dirrell has to change his game if he wants to beat Ward. He has to open up more with his offense and has to go after him if he wants to get the win. He can’t just move and avoid Ward’s shots without initiating his own offense. He has to throw combinations and look to out-work Ward if he wants to get a decision when they meet up in September or October. I still think Dirrell was his work cut out of him in this fight. Ward may be the best fighter in the entire super middleweight division at this point. Dirrell certainly has the tools to beat Ward, but what good are his tools if he doesn’t use them enough in the fight.