Andre Ward fights for Super Six lead Saturday in Oakland
Oakland's Andre Ward will have a golden opportunity Saturday night to take the lead in the unique super-middleweight Super Six tournament.
In a bout at his hometown Oracle Arena, the unbeaten former Olympic gold-medalist Ward (21-0, 13 KOs) will face replacement entrant Allan Green (29-1, 20 KOs), who substituted for twice-beaten Jermain Taylor.
If victorious, World Boxing Assn. champion Ward will land a spot in the title-unifying Super Six semifinals even before his next preliminary match versus Andre Dirrell.
"I'm locked in on what I have to do," Ward said earlier this week. "They think when you get the belt that it's time to relax. ... I have a lot of desire in me. ... I don't know if [Green] wants this belt as bad as I want to keep it."
Currently, Ward is in a four-way tie for second with two points in the Super Six standings behind leader Arthur Abraham, but Abraham is 1-1 in the preliminaries and the other fighters (except Green) have each fought twice. Ward defeated former champion Mikkel Kessler in his Super Six opener.
The Ward-Green fight will air live on Showtime East at 7 p.m. PDT and on tape-delay at 10 p.m. PDT on Showtime West.
-- Lance Pugmire
Photo: Andre Ward in 2009. Credit: Ben Margot / Associated Press.
