The Dirrell brothers the biggest threats to Andre Ward

By Scott Gilfoid: With IBF super middleweight champion Lucian Bute off the top of the super middleweight division by Carl Froch last weekend, it leaves only the Dirrell brothers as the last remaining threats to WBA super middleweight champion Andre Ward.

Froch, as good as he looked against a hurt Bute last weekend, he wouldn’t stand a chance against Ward in a rematch. Nothing changes in a second fight between Ward and Froch other than maybe Froch getting beaten even easier the second time around. Ward beat Froch with a broken left hand, which he sustained in the 2nd round in their fight last December.

A healthy Ward will win every round against Froch I hate to say. I know the Brits are flapping their gums about how great they think their hero Froch is, but I think if they put down their flag that they’ve waiving back and forth, they’ll agree that Ward would simply spank Froch a second time if the fought again.

The Dirrell brothers really are the only ones left to face Froch. Adonis Stevenson has already been exposed by Darnell Boone, Edwin Rodriguez lacks the power and the speed, James DeGale is too weak, slow and flat-footed, George Groves is too weak, runs too much and has no inside game, Arthur Abraham was already exposed by Ward, and Robert Stieglitz is a paper champion. As for Mikkel Kessler, he’s fight at light heavyweight but if he moves back down, Ward will only beat him as badly as he did in 2009 in the Super Six tournament.

Andre Dirrell has the speed and defensive ability to give Ward a ton of problems. Dirrell is also smart and strong enough to keep the fight in the center of the ring. He won’t let Ward bully him into fighting an inside war.

Anthony Dirrell has equal speed compared to Ward, but he’s a much bigger puncher. Anthony is also an excellent inside fighter, so he’d make it really tough on Ward in close.