Andre Ward vs. Andre Dirrell

The world of boxing has been waiting to see this match ever since the Super Six tournament began in 2009.

Let's put some background into it and start from the Super Six.

Ward started the tournament very well, upsetting Mikkel Kessler in the first round and then beating a S6 replacement Allan Green.

Andre Dirrell went to England and beat Carl Froch inside the ring, but the hometown judges didn't see it that way, so Dirrell lost a highly controversial SD. In the 2nd round, he won a somewhat controversial DQ against Abraham.

The 3rd round was supposed to host a showdown between Ward and Dirrell. Considering that Dirrell had 1 home and 1 away fight, and Ward fought both rounds in his hometown (Oakland), Ward was supposed to travel to Michigan to fight Andre Dirrell, which he refused. A lot of controversy happened during the time prior to the fight and it eventually got canceled as Dirrell withdrew from the tournament due to an alleged injury.
Andre Ward went on to win the tournament by winning decisions over Abraham and Froch in 2011. That was also the last time Andre Ward faced a top super-middleweight.

Now, 4 years later, neither guy is in position where they once were.

Dirrell successfully came back, but most recently lost his 2nd shot at world title against James DeGale in a close fight.

Andre Ward didn't lose, but he didn't fight anyone of note either. He also managed to lose his WBC and Ring/Lineal titles due to inactivity and refusal to fight certain fighters.

Now,

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is coming back against a solid top 15-20 opponent in

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on October 17th.

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has defeated a very poor opponent in

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at 172lbs catchweight (even then, ex-middleweight Smith was so out of shape that he came over the 172lbs limit). Now, Andre Ward is rumored to return either on Cotto-Canelo undercard or on his own event against another relatively poor opponent (Zack Dunn is among the rumored foes).

Andre Dirrell has said numerous times recently that he is ready to take on Ward and that the fight has to happen and will happen. According to various sources, if Dirrell gets past his next opponent, he will be granted another title shot sometime in 2016.

Could that be the long awaited showdown against Andre Ward?

If Ward calls for the Dirrell fight, it might be.

On the other hand, Andre Ward has spent years being either inactive or facing mediocre opposition. Let's not forget that he decided not to fight

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when Bute was at his peak. Ward also turned down

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and went on to face little known opponent in 2013.
Recently, DeGale publicly called for the Ward fight, yet there was absolutely no response from team Ward.

In the meantime, Andre Ward simply decided to keep calling out middleweights (Kelly Pavlik, Sergio Martinez, Chavez Jr and most recently Golovkin) while successfully avoiding to face

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.

There are numerous interviews (both old and recent) where Andre Dirrell speaks about willing to fight Ward and being confident that he beats Andre Ward.

We are yet to see Ward expressing any desire to face Andre Dirrell.

All the true boxing fans want to see this fight, especially those who have been tracking both guys since their arrival on the scene.

Feel free to comment and give out your opinion regarding the topic.

 

Looks like Ward has left the division and is on the path to fight the light heavyweight champ Sergey Kovalev.

It seems that we'll likely never get to see Ward/Dirrell.