With a re-injured right knee that has given him a lot of problems in his young career, Andre Ward has been forced to postpone his scheduled April 24 fight with Allan Green, but feels he'll be ready by late May or early June.
The fight was to be paired with Carl Froch-Mikkel Kessler as a Super Six double-header. Froch-Kessler will still go ahead on that date, shown on tape delay in the United States by Showtime.
Ward (21-0, 13 KO) is coming off of a career-best win over Kessler in November. Green (29-1, 20 KO) has come into the tournament as a replacement for Jermain Taylor, who dropped out after suffering a bad knockout loss to Arthur Abraham in stage one.
The 26-year-old Ward injured his knee a few years ago playing basketball, and the injury is partly to blame for what many saw as a slow career progression that accelerated in 2009, when he was healthy all year. He's reached the top ranks of the super middleweight division now, winning his first major title from Kessler, and had opened a lot of eyes.
I've said in the past that of all the things that could undo Andre Ward's career early, the knee injury is definitely up there on the list. This doesn't sound serious, though, more like a minor tweak than anything. Ward says he tried to battle through the injury in training camp, but was advised by doctors to stay off the knee for a few weeks, so he will.
It's the latest setback for the Super Six, which has seen a bit of chaos going into stage two. Abraham-Andre Dirrell was first set for March 6, then pushed back to March 27 when Dirrell suffered a back injury. Froch and Kessler argued over the location of their fight (Froch wanted it in Copenhagen, but it will be in Herning, Denmark). Taylor pulled out, and was to be replaced by the winner of a Green-Sakio Bika fight, which didn't happen. Now with Green in and ready to go, Ward is injured. And the Froch-Kessler/Ward-Green double-header moved from April 17 to April 24 when HBO put together an April 17 double-header featuring Kelly Pavlik and Lucian Bute.