By Scott Gilfoid: WBA super middleweight champion Andre Ward (22-0, 13 KO’s) is shooting for a knockout over 31-year-old contender Sakio Bika (28-4-2, 19 KO’s) when they meet up next month on November 27th at the Oracle Arena, in Oakland, California, Ward, 26, isn’t really what you would consider a knockout puncher.

However, he does have decent power and can wear his opponents down with an accumulation of punches to get an eventual stoppage. One example of the withering effects of Ward’s punches is Mikkel Kessler, who took a real beating from Ward during their fight last year in November until the bout was stopped in the 11th round by the referee.

Had the referee not stepped in the halt the one-sided fight, Kessler likely would have been stopped outright in either the 11th or 12th rounds of the fight. Bika is pretty tough, though. Bika has never been stopped before during his 10-year pro career. His losses have come against good fighters Lucian Bute, Joe Calzaghe, Jean Paul Mendy and Sam Soliman.

It’s hard to count the Mendy fight as a loss because Bika was disqualified in that one in the 1st round after knocking him down. Bika got a little carried away with himself and tagged Mendy with a punch after he was already down. The referee Joe Cortez than pulled the plug on the fight and immediately disqualified Bika for the foul.

In an article at East Side Boxing’s On the Ropes Boxing Radio, Ward said “We set the bar high and I don’t think that bar is set unrealistically high. I mean anybody can be stopped, and all I have to do is implement the game plan that’s being drawn up right now and patiently let it unfold.

That’s definitely something that we’re shooting to do in this fight, absolutely.” That would be a huge way for Ward to win, and it would send a message to Super Six tournament fighters Arthur Abraham and Carl Froch that they have to respect his power as well as his boxing skills.