By Scott Gilfoid: For boxing fans anxiously looking forward to the November 27th clash between World Boxing Association (WBA) super middleweight champion Andre Ward (22-0, 13 KO’s) and Sakio Bika (28-4-2, 19 KO’s) at the Oracle Arena, in Oakland, California, they’ll have to sit through Arthur Abraham (31-1, 25 KO’s) vs. Carl Froch (26-1, 20 KO’s) first on Showtime as part of their split doubleheader of the Super Six tournament. It’s going to be hard to watch the crude sluggers fighting so stiffly in the first fight, but at least the best has been saved for last with Ward-Bika.

That fight isn’t a Super Six tournament bout, as Ward’s opponent Andre Dirrell was forced to pull out of the tournament because of an injury. Showtime decided not to fight replace Dirrell, and so we’re going to be seeing a non-Super Six tournament fight between Ward and Bika. This is merely a money and a stay busy fight for Ward. He wants to stay sharp at the same time picking up close to a $1 million for the fight. He received a forfeit and two points due to Dirrell pulling out of the tournament. This puts Ward into the semifinals where he’s now waiting to fight out who his opponent will be.

Ward has looked unbelievable in beating Mikkel Kessler and Allan Green in his first two Super Six tournament fights. It was thought that Dirrell, with his brilliant boxing skills and hand speed, would be the one fighter that could give Ward a good fight. However, now that Dirrell is out of the tournament, the suspense has dropped off dramatically because Abraham and Froch are far too slow and limited to compete with a talent like Ward. But it’s going to be nice to see Ward give one of them a boxing lesson before the tournament ends. Both Froch and Abraham are coming off of losses and will be wanting to look good to make fans forget about their defeats.