Green vs. Ward: Is Allan too confident for his own good?

Super middleweight contender Allan Green (29-1, 20 KO’s) was recently picked as the replacement for Jermain Taylor in the Super Six tournament. While I think Green has good hand speed and nice power, I think he’s totally unproven as a fighter and someone who appears too confident for what he’s actually achieved in the boxing ring. Green, 30, appears confident to the extreme in his abilities as a fighter. Confidence is good, but with the exception of the mostly 2nd tier opponents that he’s faced during his career, Green hasn’t looked all that great when he’s fought upper level talent. Green also is starting to look a little old to me all of a sudden.

Green reminds me of a guy a struggling with algebra all of a sudden getting put in an advanced calculus class and then bragging how he’s going to ace all the tests. I just don’t see it happening. Green looked horrible in his losing effort against Edison Miranda in 2007. Miranda had Green down twice in the 10th round, and looked within a whisper of being stopped in the round.

I think Green is capable of beating some fighters in the top 15, just not any of the Super Six fighters unfortunately. I see the 26-year-old Ward giving Green a major spanking in their stage 2 Super Six fight on April 24th, in Oakland, California. Hopefully, Ward beats Green bad enough to the point where it takes away his cockiness and makes him more grounded as a fighter. I think Green might be a good fighter, but he’s not shown it in fights against top level fighters.

Green looked very mediocre in 10 round decision win over Tarvis Simms in October. Simms is a decent fighter, someone I would consider bottom 15, yet Green really struggled against him. And in Green’s fight with Miranda in 2007, Green looked paralyzed fear, not throwing punches and just looking like he was waiting for the bottom to drop out.

I can only imagine what Ward is going to do to Green on April 24th. It’s not going to be pretty. This is going to be a slaughter even worse than Ward’s 11 round technical decision win over Mikkel Kessler in November. Green is going to be lucky if he can even win a round. Honestly, I don’t expect Green to even do that well. I think he’s going to take heavy punishment from Ward in a one-sided fight until eventually Green is going to be knocked out.

In that respect, I think Green is the perfect replacement for Taylor. He can simply continue with the momentum that Taylor had going for him in his 12th round knockout loss to Arthur Abraham on October 17th last year. Ward pretty much proved that he along with Andre Dirrell are the cream of the Super Six crop in their first fights. Green will be fighting in Ward’s home city of Oakland, California in front of a huge pro-Ward crowd. I think this is going to further have Green shaking in his shoes on April 24th.

Green does have fast hands, but he’s mostly a cautious one-two puncher. He doesn’t throw a lot of three or four punch combinations and will likely find himself getting strung with counter punches from Ward. Green might have an edge in the power department, but Ward is clearly the better fighter of the two, and I think he’s going to make Green look like a terrible replacement for Taylor.