Allan Green: “Ward wouldn’t be a problem for me at all
by Geoffrey Ciani - An exclusive interview with super middleweight contender Allan Green highlighted this past week’s edition of On the Ropes. Green is slated to face fellow contender Sakio Bika on February 5. The winner of this contest is rumored to become the replacement for Jermain Taylor in the Super Six super middleweight tournament. We had a nice conversation with Green which covered a wide variety of topics. Here are some excerpts from that interview:
On Jermain Taylor pulling out of the Super Six super:
“I felt like he shouldn’t have been there in the first place. I mean if that’s his decision, that’s the decision he made. I guess he felt that he didn’t belong.”
On being left out of the tournament when it first started:
“I felt disrespected. It really didn’t make any sense. I never got an explanation from anybody as to why I was left out. I was never even contacted about the tournament..”
On his upcoming fight with Sakio Bika:
“How do I think Sakio Bika will do against me? Not very well. Even in that fight, the fact that I have to fight a fight to get in there, I don’t feel that’s right. I mean I have nothing against Sakio Bika. He’s a strong guy, doesn’t have a lot of skills, but he’s very strong.”
On who impressed him most in the first round of the Super Six:
“Who impressed me the most? It would have to be out of (Carl) Froch and (Andre) Ward. It’s hard to say.”
On Ward’s dominating victory against tournament favorite Mikkel Kessler:
“Ward frustrates a lot of guys and gets them out of their game. I wasn’t really surprised. With Kessler’s style he really couldn’t nullify anything Ward was doing because of a lack of boxing skills.”
On how he thinks he matches up against Andre Ward:
“He wouldn’t be a problem for me at all. It’s a fight I’ve been wanting for awhile. Trust me, he wouldn’t be a problem for me at all.”
Regarding his opinion of Carl Froch:
“He’s a good fighter. A lot of people kind of underrate Froch, but Froch is very determined—very determined. He is awkwardly clever in his own way and he’s very determined. He doesn’t yield to anybody.”
His views on the upcoming round two match-up between Arthur Abraham and Andre Dirrell:
“That’s a tricky one. That’s a very tricky one. It’s conceivable to say that Abraham comes out and catches Dirrell with a good shot and stops him. If you watch the fight, in the first five rounds against Jermain Taylor, Jermain Taylor was in control of that fight and Jermain, as he always does, he got winded down the stretch. Now I’m not saying Dirrell is a better boxer than Jermain is, but he does not have as much wear and tear as Jermain. He hasn’t been knocked out consecutively like Jermain has. He’s fast, he’s tall, and it’s also conceivable that he outboxes Arthur Abraham. I’m going to say Dirrell (wins).”
His views on the upcoming round two match-up between Carl Froch and Mikkel Kessler:
“I have no idea how that fight’s going to go. I think it’s going to be a great fight. I think a lot of people are going to be surprised being the fact that a lot of people believed Kessler—let me tell you something about boxing, the fans, and how fickle they are. They put Kessler as the best in the tournament, but I kept asking, ‘Based on what’? The fact that he has been in the ring with Joe Calzaghe? Is that way you put him at the top? Because before that, the only guy, I mean Markus Beyer was never really a threat, he was the champ. He was just a guy with a belt. He beat Librado Andrade, who’s not a great threat either, so I didn’t understand why people put Kessler at the top of the division. To me it was somewhat of a, anybody could have really been the best. You really couldn’t say who was the best out of the Super Six because there were a lot of good guys who fought in that tournament. I really don’t know. I think Froch has a lot more mental toughness. Kessler may be a little faster, I think Froch is a little foxier, a little slicker. If I had to make a pick—if I had to—I would go with Carl Froch.”
On what he considers to be his best asset inside the ring:
“A lot of people talk about my speed and talk about my power, there’s a lot of fighters that are fast and strong and hit hard, but it’s just my mental game. I know I can out-think or out-rough any fighter.”
Regarding the breakdown of negotiations between Floyd Mayweather and Manny Pacquiao:
“I just think Floyd was looking for an out, I don’t think Floyd really wanted the fight. I mean I’m not saying he was scared of him or nothing, I’m just saying something he saw maybe intimidated him, maybe he didn’t like it, I don’t know. I feel like that was a way for him to get out of the fight because he initiated it. Pacquiao was the reactionary and the reactionary is never at fault.”
On whether he believes Floyd will step up and fight Sugar Shane Mosley:
“Floyd will never fight Shane Mosley. He will never fight Shane Mosley. I think he knows as well as anybody else, I don’t think that’s the right fight for him. No disrespect to Floyd, but while we are on the subject, if you’re going to call yourself the best fighter in the world you should at least fight a fighter that has a chance of beating you and I don’t think he’s ever done that.”
On who he thinks would win if Pacquiao and Mayweather did eventually fight sometime in 2010:
“I think Floyd is the better fighter, but the question is not if but when Manny Pacquiao hits him—and he probably will hit Floyd a lot even though Floyd is a great defensive fighter—how is going to react? I think the questions would have to be answered on Mayweather’s end, not Pacquiao’s.”
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