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Showtime’s much talked about Super Six Tournament goes front and center under the spotlight tonight at Oakland, CA’s Oracle Arena with hometown hero Andre Ward putting his WBA super middle title belt on the line for the very first time.
26 year odl Ward, 21-0 (13), is a newcomer to the world stage, having unseated reigning WBA champion and ruling divisional kingpin Mikkel Kessler at this same venue in November of last year via an 11th round technical decision.
Prior to that bout, Ward’s most significant accomplishment had been a Gold Medal at the 2004 Olympics, the last American amateur boxer to produce such a result as we have reminded of over and over in Ward’s promoter’s media releases.
Ward’s list of professional victims leading up to his masterful Kessler dethronement has been filled with the usual suspects along with a cast of solid grade B performers here and there from 2007-2009, with one exception: Colombian slugger Edison Miranda.
Ward KO’d Miranda, a hard as nails former middleweight world title challenger, in May, 2009 and that brings us to Ward’s opponent tonight, Allan Green.
Green, 29-1 (20), as everyone that follows the sport by now must be aware of, is the replacement for the twice-KO’d Jermain Taylor in the Super Six Tournament.
The 30 year old Tulsa, OK native spent the first few years of his career as a light heavyweight, dispensing of a lineup of little known opponents with the exception of a four round UD over future Interim WBO cruiserweight beltholder Ola Afolabi in 2003.
Green dropped down to super middle in 2005, again going through lesser competition until agreeing to face Edison Miranda at a catchweight of 162 pounds in 2007 in Miranda’s adopted homeland of Puerto Rico.
Miranda had to climb off the canvas in the eighth before decking Green twice in the tenth and final frame, settling for a 97-90, 96-91 and 96-91 victory over the American on the scorecards.
Did Green drop down too far in weight or was his brush with a world class opponent simply a step too high?
The Oklahoman went back to safer waters after that bout, winning six straight over the lineup of Darrel Woods, Sherwin Davis, Rubin Williams, Carl Daniels, Carlos De Leon Jr and most recently, Tarvis Simms this past October.
A respectable list of victims for a two year period but not a single world class operator.
Again, the same could have been said of Andre Ward prior to the Kessler fight but Ward has the advantage of having stepped up to the top of the heap and knocked off the guy at the top.
Now it’s Green’s turn to try and pull off the same feat.
Can Green prove that Ward’s win over Kessler was simply the result of an off night for the Dane? Or will Ward solidify his hold on the division by confirming via a dominating win that Green really doesn’t belong in the Super Six Tournament?
We won’t have to wait long to find out.
