By Dan Ambrose: WBA super middleweight champion Andre Ward (23-0, 13 KO’s) kept his perfect record intact while at the same time successfully defending his World Boxing Association title against fill in opponent 31-year-old Sakio Bika (28-5-2, 19 KO’s), defeating him by a 12 round unanimous decision at the Oracle Arena, in Oakland, California. The final judges’ scores were 120-108, 118-110 and 118-110. I scored it 116-114. This was a replacement opponent for Ward to fill in for the loss of his Super Six tourney opponent Andre Dirrell.

Although Bika wasn’t part of the Super Six tournament, he proved to be an even better opponent for Ward than the two previous fighters that Ward had beaten in the tournament already Mikkel Kessler and Allan Green. Ward decided early against Bika that he was going to fight him on the inside and try to beat him at his own game. Bika is one of the best inside fighters in the game, and almost impossible to beat in close because of his strength and ability to throw powerful shots at a close range. However, Ward proved to be an even better inside fighter than Bika and was able to wear down the 31-year-old in the later rounds of the fight with his superior stamina.

Ward struggled early on against Bika, appearing to lose the first three rounds due to Bika’s high work rate. Ward looked confused in those rounds, because he was unable to bully and rough up Bika like he had his other recent opponents. Bika simply was too strong and too skilled on the inside for Ward to dominate him like had his other opponents. While Ward had the listed longer reach and a slight height advantage over the 6′ foot Bika, he didn’t have the arm length and wasn’t able to dominate Bika from the outside. Indeed, it was Bika who was getting the better of the action from the outside with his longer jabs and big left hooks and right hands. Ward decided early on that it was safer to stay in close rather than to take his chances fighting on the outside.

The fight turned into one long grueling inside wrestling/punching affair from the 2nd round on with both fighters trading shots. Bika mostly had his way for the first three rounds, because Ward seemed off balance by Bika’s style. Ward suffered a small cut on the corner of his left eye in the 3rd round.

In the 4th, Ward staggered Bika with a hard left hook to the head. Ward spent the remainder of the round landing mostly single shots while Bika missed repeatedly with wild shots while trying to pay him back.

Ward jabbed effectively in the 5th, snapping Bika’s head back repeatedly with nice stinging jabs as Bika was coming forward. In the 6th, Ward was cut on the corner of his right eye and both fighters wrestled for most of the round. It was a close round and almost impossible to score. Like usual, Bika threw more punches, but many of his shots were picked off by the gloves of Ward or ended up missing badly.

Bika came back strong in the 8th round, throwing and landing a lot of punches in close. This was clearly his best round since the 3rd and he fought very well in this round. Ward almost looked embarrassed because he was hit so often by Bika. The Bika that fought in this round would have given any fighter in the Super Six tournament real problems.

In the 9th, Bika stopped punching and was totally dominated by an energized Ward. Early in the round, Bika landed a forearm, which led to him being warned by the referee. A short time later, Ward had Bika up against the ropes pummeling him with shots and paid him back with a nice right hand elbow to the head. Bika didn’t seem to mind and just kept fighting through it as if he hadn’t been hit. However, Ward dominated Bika in the round with left hands and jabs.

In the 10th and 11th rounds, Ward controlled the action with his jabs, tagging Bika in the head over and over again. Ward looked loose and relaxed finally and wasn’t trying as hard as he was earlier to rough up Bika.

In the 12th, Bika came back strong, trying hard to score a knockout. He didn’t score a knockout but he did out-punch Ward by a wide margin in the round and was landing effectively with combinations when the fight ended. Unfortunately for Bika, he didn’t fight like this in enough rounds to get the win.

This was a very tough fight for Ward, and easily the hardest of his six year pro career. However, he did show that he can beat a tough customer and do it with room to spare. Unlike the judges, I had the fight very close with Ward winning it by only two rounds. He fought the wrong fight against Bika, and would have done better to fight on the outside like Lucian Bute and Joe Calzaghe did in beating Bika.

Next up for Ward is Arthur Abraham, who was totally schooled in a lopsided 12 round unanimous decision to Carl Froch last weekend. Ward needs to focus more on fighting on the outside, because Abraham is the wrong type of fighter to battle on the inside. Ward needs to change his style somewhat for this fight if he wants to avoid getting hurt and/or taking big punishment from the hard hitting Abraham. Arthur matches up much better with Ward because of his inside fighting style than he did against Froch, who smart enough to realize that he was better off keeping the fight on the outside.