By Scott Gilfoid: On Saturday night, the best fighter in the super middleweight division, WBA super middleweight champion Andre Ward (22-0, 13 KO’s), will show the boxing world why he’s considered by many to be the best in the division by schooling and then stopping 31-year-old Sakio Bika (28-4-2, 19 KO’s) in front of what will likely be a sold out Oracle Arena, in Oakland, California. The Ward-Bika fight will be a part of Showtime’s split doubleheader shown on Saturday night with Carl Froch vs. Arthur Abraham going at it in the other bout on the night. This will give viewers a chance to see how much better Ward is compared Froch and Abraham. It should be quite a difference in talent.

Bika has good power and can be murderous on the inside if his opponents make the mistake of trying to fight him in close. Bika dropped his last opponent Jean Paul Mendy in the 1st round in July, but instead of keeping his cool and letting the referee count Mendy out, Bika added a finishing shot. Unfortunately, Mendy was on the ground when Bika threw the shot and this caused the referee to stop the fight. But whatever the case, I think Ward can handle Bika without any problems whether on the inside or the outside. Ward is good at moving his head to dodge shots and he leans forward and is hard to hit with power punches. Bika doesn’t have an uppercut in his toolbox, so he’s not going to be able to capitalize on Ward’s habit of leaning forward when he’s on the inside.

This is a fight where Bika will have only a few rounds to try and do anything with Ward, because if he can’t hurt Ward in the first three rounds, Bika’s chances will drop dramatically as Ward settles into his rhythm and starts dominating Bika. I see Ward hurting a tired Bika in the later rounds with one of big long right hands and taking him out in front of a screaming Oakland audience. This is going to be Ward’s signal to the rest of the division that he’s here to stay for a long time.