By Mark Young: Andre Ward did the business and beat Arthur Abraham, Carl Froch delivered the goods and beat Glen Johnson and now both the winners enter the Super Six final. The tournament didn’t quite pan out as initially planned but two of the original entrants made the final and the final looks very interesting.

On the road to the final Andre Ward it can be said demolished WBA champion Mikkel Kessler, then comprehensively beat the B level Allan Green before a non tournament fight with a past his prime Sakio Bika and finally finished by handing out of his depth Arthur Abraham his third consecutive defeat. All of Wards fights went the distance, excluding the Kessler fight which was stopped due to cuts inflicted by several deliberate head butts. All of Wards fights have been home fights.

Carl Froch started the Super Six with a very messy home fight against Andre Dirrell, the win was a split decision verdict, Froch lost a questionable decision in fight of the year against Mikkel Kessler in Denmark before going on to put the blue print out on how to dominate Arthur Abraham for 12 rounds and finally finished his run into the finals by comfortably beating war horse Glen Johnson in a relaxed but unnecessarily scrappy affair.

When you pitch the two against each other Andre Ward comes out on top in just about everyone’s opinion, he doesn’t have knockout power, in fact the only physical damage he has inflicted so far has been with his forehead, that said he does have sensational boxing ability. Ward switches seamlessly between south paw and orthodox stances, fights well from the inside and out and has a good offensive and defensive game. Wards chin isn’t crystal either, he did slow for a second when Abraham finally tagged him in the 12th round of their encounter but that aside isn’t what you might describe as chinny and has got this far pretty much unscathed.

Ward does have some negatives that currently surround him, but apart from his willingness to adopt very unsporting tactics when fighting, these negatives aren’t associated with his performances inside the ring. Ward has taken a mild amount of stick for not fighting outside not only of his home country, but his home state, though this can’t really be attributed to Ward, the blame lies with Showtime for not making the tournament fair across the board. This has brought about questions of bias and the suggestion that Showtime have an agenda to contract Ward after the final. Ward does have poor support in the US, his only fight held outside of his local stadium saw Arthur Abraham, an Armenian fighting out of Germany, bring the louder more emphatic support, after the victory Ward stated that he wanted to become the complete article and that he thought introducing showboating would complete him as a fighter, for a man with such poor support this could have a very negative effect.

As for Carl’s fights, they are often barn-stormers. Antonio Tarver suggested that the Glen Johnson fight could end up as fight on the year. If Glen had been a little younger and fresher it may well have, because Froch can’t resist a swing up. Having back to back fight of the years however means you’re having close fights, close fights that are wars, which means you’re getting hit, and getting hit means you are losing rounds no matter how big your balls are. Carl has boxing skills. His jab is telegraphed, his right arms flicks back as he whips out his long left, his defence is not great, he keeps his hands low as he’s an ambush fighter who lures his opponents in, but he does take shots. Glen Johnson land the overhand right too frequently and on the inside managed to double up his left hooks which caught Carl cleanly. Andre Dirrell fought a negative fight which made Carl look clumsy and at times slow as he was forced to change from an ambush fighter to an offensive fighter.

Carl Froch would have to be England’s version of the road warrior, Glen Johnson. Carl has only just started to gain the support he should have had years ago, the variables attributed to his lack of popularity are many, he’s had poor management at a time when boxing broadcasters were winding back from televised fights, he publicly called out and mocked a British boxing legend in Joe Calzaghe and offered honest opinions on other fighters in the game when other more media savvy fighters would have said the right thing Carl spoke the truth, which doesn’t always come across as humble. British fight fans are fickle, showboating is out, humble is in, hype is ok but being a tough gritty underdog will always get you the nod.

For Andre Ward to beat Carl he needs to utilise his speed, he needs to adopt some of the tactics that Dirrell implemented while employing his lateral movement and precise combinations. Ward fights well on the inside and will likely get the green light if he wants to get a little rough on there, a place where Carl doesn’t like to be. Carl’s not hopeless on the inside by any means, but he’s far from spectacular either and as can be seen against Johnson he caught consecutive left hooks while fighting in tight. Ward doesn’t have the power to knock Froch out, his only chance of a stoppage would come from cuts, which is a good possibility considering his willingness to use his head. I should imagine if Ward did open cuts with his head though that Froch would willingly disqualify himself rather than quietly carry on as Kessler did. Ward does have the ability to adapt and change, he’s said he’s become a big fan of the jab to the solar plexus incidentally, a shot that worked well for Mikkel Kessler against Carl, he’s a versatile guy with a good boxing brain, has a good quiver of shots in his arsenal while his lack of power has forced him to make sure he hits and doesn’t get hit, or at least not hit twice in a row he says.

Carl Froch will virtually need a knock out to beat Ward, he does have more than a punchers chance without doubt, but going to the cards in Wards home country, in the next State across from his home town, in a tournament that could leave Showtime with a contracted US winner holding two world titles is a little bit of a long shot for the Cobra. Carl would have to completely dominate Andre Ward to win on the cards, that’s a cold hard fact, and I don’t think he has the ability to convincingly dominate Andre Ward in a fight unless he drops him at least twice and has the fight of his life, anything less will see Ward handed the trophy and signed to a four or five fight Showtime contract. Carl can knock Ward out, he does have the power to knock guys out, his power though is more accumulative in the upper echelons of the game, he’s not been knocking guys out with one shot for a for a while and this could cause him problems with Ward, because Ward knows how to remove himself when he’s been tagged, the question though is how good is Wards chin and can Carl cleanly land on it?. Carl suggested he could walk through Wards feather duster punches, and I don’t doubt he can, but when he gets to the other side he needs to hope he finds someone standing there that he can land against otherwise those pitter patter punches will simply join all the other pitter patter punches on a compubox stat sheet and make it all the more easier for the judges to hand Ward the final.

If I had to pick a guy I would like to see win it would be Carl Froch as I’m sure shows, especially considering the skilful Ward will unquestionably have his day in boxing so it would be nice to see Carl cement a bit of a legacy considering his willingness to take on anyone and everyone, it would also be nice to see Carl beat the pulp out of Lucian Bute afterwards, something I think both Ward and Froch could do easily, but should Carl lose it would be a fight Bute will happily avoid on the grounds Froch doesn’t have a belt. Realistically though Ward’s got to survive 12 rounds and only win six to romp home in this final, should that happen, scores are going to suggest a shutout.