Upon rewatching Andre Ward-Allan Green from Saturday, I'm more convinced still than before about one point of debate: Ward wasn't head butting Green, and he wasn't holding him and hitting him. The super middleweight bout featured a lot of infighting, but in almost every occasion, Ward was punching Green with his free hand while Green was holding his other. Ward, in fact, was very conscientious about it -- the second he had a hand free, he was punching with it. As for the head butts, I've watched again and again and the only head butt I've seen was when Ward landed a punch in the 7th and continued forward, while Green's head popped back then came forward again. Totally inadvertent. Otherwise, Ward's head would touch Green's head and chest, sure, but he wasn't butting him -- he was steering him, using his noggin as a way of obtaining leverage, never as a way to do damage.

Ward in his previous fight came off as a little dirty to me, in that decision over Mikkel Kessler, but not this time. Nope, this was a clean beating he put on Green, and you'll notice neither Green nor Green's promoter Lou DiBella have complained about dirty tactics from Ward, and Green showed after the fight he wasn't above making excuses to explain the loss. The clean beating Ward put on Green meant that most of the talk at the post-fight press conference was instead about Ward needling DiBella about Green calling him a "hummingbird" before the fight -- swift but harmless -- while Green was at the hospital instead of the at the mic.

(The fight in microcosm: Allan Green at left, Andre Ward at right. Credit: Tom Casino, Showtime)

Is there a more complete boxer right now than Andre Ward? In dominating another top-10 fighter in arguably the best division in boxing, super middleweight, Ward showed me with an intoxicating display of skills Saturday that he's the young boxer most likely to take over as the pound-for-pound king of the sport. It's too soon to compare him to Sugar Ray Leonard or Roy Jones, Jr., as Showtime's broadcast team did, but it's not hyperbole to say he could end up the #1 man in the sport before long. If you like the sweet science, Ward is so pure a practitioner he'll almost give you cavities.

Despite its bold comparisons for Ward, Showtime's broadcast team spent far too much time for my tastes blaming Allan Green for what happened in the ring Saturday. It's almost as if they'd never seen either man fight. There's no reason to be surprised by Ward fighting on the inside -- he has spent a lot of time between the ropes in his man's chest, and against the longer Green, it was the right place for him to be. There's no point in arguing Green should have been let his hands go more -- Green never has let his hands go much. One can argue that Green should have jabbed more -- but when you only land one quarter of your jabs, and the other guy makes you pay for your misses, you're very likely going to stop throwing the jab as much. Most everything that Green did poorly had a direct causation in Ward, or Green's his fundamental flaws as a fighter. There's a reason or two Ward was the -600 betting favorite.

Victory for Freck Billionaire! He won $6,000 from Floyd Mayweather in a court dispute over a record contract. The rapper has the freckles, obviously, per the stills in the video above where he disses Mayweather, and now he's almost to billionaire status. If you dislike cussing, do not watch the video. If you dislike Mayweather, do. Mr. Billionaire (or Mr. Sixthousandthaire) gets off some decent lines.

Other Quick Jabs, besides that one and the others in the headline: Oscar De La Hoya being "misquoted;" various junior welterweight goings-on; a series of dominoes from welterweight to middleweight; and more.

This column was overdue for a renaming, so it'll keep reshuffling newspaper names around.

In this edition of The Manny-Floyd Clarion Bee, we augur the likelihood of Floyd Mayweather-Manny Pacquiao finally happening, from some goat guts laying around; mock the latest ignorant trash talk of Floyd's poppy; similarly heap disdain upon the latest potential opponent choices for Pacquiao; and examine developments in Nevada's drug testing dabbles.

The time for America-on-America violence has arrived in Showtime's most excellent Super Six tournament: In the final fight of the second round, it's Andre Ward vs. Allan Green Saturday night. Ward either continues his coming out party after dominating previous tournament favorite Mikkel Kessler or Green begins his coming out party by taking the throne Ward inherited, and there are a lot of subplots besides.

American vs. American, yes; Ward's chance to move in to the pole position vs. Green's chance to get on the scoreboard for the first time, yes; but it's also the quiet, understated personality of Ward vs. the flamboyant, sometimes obnoxious personality of Green; the boxer Ward vs. the puncher Green, even if that's a mild oversimplification; the chance for Green to reverse the trend of the hometown fighter winning, if he can upset Ward on his home soil of Oakland, vs. the chance that Ward can become the first boxer in the tournament to win two in a row; and Ward's gimpy knees vs. Green's gimpy knees.

In all of these subplots, there's also a boxing match. Ward is rightfully the heavy favorite, because in his last couple appearances he's taken on the air of a special fighter. Green no doubt has talent, and his combination of speed and power present Ward with a mixture more potent than he's yet to encounter, but he's also inconsistent and flawed. Yet if Green pulls it off, this super middleweight tournament gets super sexy going into its third round with everyone neck and neck, and you enjoy watching a gifted craftsman at work, another Ward win will be a true delight. Also, five fights in, every tournament fight has produced some kind of major drama and/or controversy, so there's that.

And if that isn't enough:

[TQBR Prediction Game 3.0 begins with this fight. Please take this opportunity to brush up on the rules.]

Let's lift up the hood and see what makes this fight go.

The main thing you'll want to be watching this week is the latest installment in Showtime's Super Six tournament Saturday night between American super middleweights Andre Ward and Allan Green. Unless, that is, you enjoy sending the message to boxing's powers-that-be that you hate it when six of the best fighters in a division fight each other to sort out who's best. Watch for a preview of that fight here soon. But there are a few other boxing options besides:

• Rodel Mayol-Omar Nino Romero II, Saturday, Top Rank Live, Fox Sports Net/Fox Sports en Espanol, Mexico. The first two rounds of the original junior flyweight title match-up were very good, if not great, and there was a controversial, unsatisfactory ending in the 3rd, so this one has promise -- one of the better Top Rank Live bouts yet. Romero edged the 1st, then Mayol wobbled Romero in the 2nd. The 3rd is where Romero went low and Mayol turned away; the ref moved in to separate the fighters; and Romero tagged Mayol with a shot that left him down for the count, leading to the fight being ruled a draw. In today's "everyone's faking" age, an era in which every person who ever is on the receiving end of physical suffering that causes the end of a bout is accused by fans of acting, Mayol naturally got accused of trying to find a way out by laying there. For the rematch, the additional dramatic elements include whether Romero's advancing age and Mayol's real/fake knockout will affect them in the rematch, whether a Mayol fight will end in controversy for a FIFTH time (two head butt-shortened fights with Ivan Calderon, a head butt playing a role in his win over Edgar Sosa and the Romero fight) and whether the fight being in Romero's native Mexico again could affect the scorecards. It's a significant bout in the division, with Mayol ranked #2 by Ring and Romero #10, and he'd be ranked higher if he hadn't had one of his best wins, over Brian Viloria, overturned because he failed a drug test. Check back later this week for news about whether the fight will be broadcast on the WBC's website. [UPDATE: Yup.]
  
• Friday Night Fights, Friday, ESPN2/ESPN3, Washington. It's a crazy country. There's a big ol' Russian population in Spokane, Wash., which is why two Soviet Union-ish fighters are headlining on the Deuce in the Northwest. Uzbekistan junior middleweight Sherzod Husanov makes his U.S. debut in the headliner. He was scheduled less than a month ago to be the guy against whom Sergiy Dzinziruk made HIS U.S. debut before plans changed, so I'm not sure what kind of prospect Husanov is, especially at age 30, but he does have some amateur cred. His opponent is Jhon Berrio, a high-KO Colombian, which is a redundant phrase; he also has two knockout losses in six. The supporting bout features super middleweight Maxim Vlasov, a more traditional prospect in that he's 23 and he's fought a couple opponents you might have heard of (like Julius Fogle, who recently gave Enrique Ornelas a tough time). He's also taking on the more credible opponent, Kingsley Ikeke, whose three losses came to top-notch guys Jean Pascal and Arthur Abraham and then-ballyhooed prospect Anthony Hanshaw. That's some bold matchmaking, and I like it. Also, junior middleweight prospect Demetrius Andrade fights someone named Candy. There's a joke in there about Andrade being matched soft so far in his career, although Candy's birth name appears to be the also-neat Quandray. The fight will be webcast simultaneously on ESPN3. [UPDATE: Ikeke pulled out of the fight, so Jerson Ravelo will replace him. Maybe a more prudent choice, given where Vlasov is in his career.]
  
• The Rest. Lightweight Luis Ramos graduates from Fight Night Club to Solo Boxeo on TeleFutura Friday against TBA, in Texas [UPDATE: He'll take on Joshua Allottey, a trial horse who's lost to a variety of prospects and will be Ramos' most experienced opponent]... Junior flyweights Hekkie Budler and Juanito Rubillar rematch Saturday in Budler's South Africa, where Budler won a controversial majority decision in February... Former junior welterweight contender Kendall Holt looks to prove he still cares about boxing against Jesse Feliciano on the Ward-Green undercard [UPDATE: Not a good sign of Holt caring -- he was having trouble getting down to the weight, and postponed]... Light heavyweight Omar Sheika heads up a GoFightLive show in New Jersey Friday... Comebacking heavyweight Hasim Rahman and junior featherweight Martin Castillo fight Saturday... There's a Box Azteca card listed on my DirecTV guide for Saturday, but I don't have any more info yet.

Could there be any two more contrasting victories that those in the main events of the two biggest televised cards of the weekend?

On Fox Sports Net/Fox Sports en Espanol's Top Rank Live, junior flyweight champion Ivan Calderon outslicked Jesus Iribe to the extreme to take his customary decision win. Early on, Calderon looked vulnerable. Iribe even deposited him on the canvas with a 1-2 in the 2nd round, although Calderon wasn't badly hurt. But the longer the fight went, the sharper Calderon got and the sloppier Iribe got. And Iribe started wild, so that's saying something. If Iribe had a jab, and didn't throw such winging shots, maybe he'd have had more luck, because he did slip in some big body shots and might have done more good work with a little more fundamental boxing. Rodel Mayol didn't look nearly this sloppy against Calderon. Vulnerable or no, Calderon knows so many tricks he can be viable for a while longer; I love his subtle hip swivel move when he gets trapped on the ropes, and the crowd liked it too, shouting "ole" later in the fight as he ducked Iribe's frustrated charges. Up next for Calderon should be mandatory title challenger Johnriel Casimero, and after that, it better be someone nearer the top of his division. Calderon has talked about fighting one top junior fly after another, but keeps ending up with fringe contenders or middle-of-the-pack divisional top-10 boxers.

The undercard offered an action-packed fight between flyweights Takashi Okada and McWilliams Arroyo. Immediately, it became apparent that Arroyo, a Puerto Rican prospect to round out the card's PR theme, was in tough, despite Okada's 1-0-1 record. Okada could fight. Arroyo won three of the four rounds on my card, but he suffered a knockdown in the 2nd when Okada caught him on the ear; by the end, the judges had it 39-36, 38-37 and 38-37 for Okada. This loss shouldn't hurt Arroyo, as in, no one better hold it against him -- everyone with eyes could see Okada wasn't your typical opponent for a boxer with three fights, and Arroyo fared well and delivered excitement. But it's a very nice win for Okada, who came from Japan for the bout. Also on the televised card, welterweight Gabriel Bracero made a bid to inherit the throne of feather-fisted Puerto Rican boxers from Calderon, using his jab and counter right to blank Julias Edmonds, although Bracero's more hittable and somehow even less powerful than Calderon, with zero KOs in 10 fights.

On ESPN2's Friday Night Fights, Quebec's David Lemieux got rid of Elvin Ayala in one round where it took Arthur Abraham 12. Even though Ayala made a strategic mistake by slugging with Lemieux, and Lemieux benefited from a small ring, that tells you everything you need to know about Lemieux' power. Lemieux sent Ayala down three times with punches from both hands, and once again showed tremendous marksmanship in so doing. It isn't premature to say Lemieux is making a case for himself as one of the biggest punchers in all of boxing, even if his opponents haven't been world class yet, because of the way he's dispensing with guys who once had showed signs of being sturdy. Someday, he's going to run into someone who can exploit is stubby arms -- he's got a reach of 64", less than stubby-armed junior welterweight Ricky Hatton, 65" -- so the lower he can stay in weight, the better. He's been fighting at super middleweight lately but coming in at less than the 168-pound limit.

On the FNF undercard, super middleweight Brian Vera played spoiler yet again -- as he did most prominently against prospect Andy Lee -- by knocking out home province Quebecer Sebastien Demers in the 3rd round. Vera couldn't miss with his big right hand, and after decking Demers twice with it, he teed off with that hand to force the referee to save Demers. If you didn't catch the card, you can catch the replay on ESPN3. Watch for lightweight Tony Luis' left hook knockout, which was featured on ABC after the World Cup in a show called "Winners Bracket."

On TeleFutura's Solo Boxeo, featherweight prospect Christopher Martin outpointed Adolfo Landeros.

Off television in Mexico, Julio Cesar Miranda knocked out Richie Mepranum to take a vacant flyweight strap.

A commenter who clearly has it in for referee Arthur Mercante, Jr. mentioned the above fight recently in a list of Mercante's sins. It was news to me. Until Saturday night, I'd thought Mercante was a pretty good ref. And maybe, on the sum of his career, he still is. But between the above clip (which by itself is the kind of bad call a good ref might make extremely rarely), an unfortunate death in the ring under his supervision (likewise; some criticized Mercante's handling of the fight, some said it wasn't his fault) and what he did in Miguel Cotto vs. Yuri Foreman last weekend (rare to the point of being nearly unique), perhaps it's time for Mercante to rethink whether he should let fights go on longer or shorter when the matter is most certainly concluded. That's all I'm saying.

More stuff than that in Quick Jabs this week, like Cotto-Foreman ratings revisited; Ali Funeka's suspension; Marcos Maidana's mystery solved; and a fair amount beyond.

Ask 100 boxing fans to name the fights they want to happen most, and you'd end up with a pretty consistent top five: Floyd Mayweather vs. Manny Pacquiao (welterweight), Wladimir Klitschko vs. David Haye (heavyweight), Timothy Bradley vs. Devon Alexander (junior welterweight), Paul Williams vs. Sergio Martinez II (middleweight), Juan Manuel Lopez vs. Yuriorkis Gamboa (featherweight).

Here's what they all have in common: We've been waiting for them for a long time, or we're being told we'll need to wait for them for a while.

It's a deeply troubling condition.

The rest of June and all of July (at least based on what's scheduled as of this writing) offer very little in the way of ultra-top-notch boxing cards, with only two weekends currently slated for what I consider fights that are all that important slash competitive. This week is the beginning of that trend. Now that it's said, it won't need to be said every week.

• Top Rank Live, Saturday, Fox Sports Net/Fox Sports en Espanol/TRLiveStream, New York. Let's see if Ivan Calderon can't make it four fights in a row cut short by head butts. The junior flyweight champion, who still is in some folks' pound-for-pound top 10, is vowing a knock out (!!!!) against Jesus Iribe. Calderon has six knockouts in 33 wins, and all a sudden he's going to KO a guy who went the distance with Brian Viloria? I guess he's trying to hype the fight, which ought to do fairly well by virtue of coming on the eve of the Puerto Rican Day Parade, and Calderon is from PR. Iribe has six losses, one by KO, but he has 10 KOs in his 16 wins. With Calderon on the way down, maybe this is his big chance. I doubt it, though. Also on the card: the pro debut of Army helicopter pilot Steven Badgley, a light heavyweight; aggressive junior middleweight prospect Glen Tapia, who's part Puerto Rican; and talented Puerto Rican flyweight prospect McWilliams Arroyo. Check in with Top Rank's website for the untelevised undercard -- I haven't seen an announcement, but I thought I saw on the site earlier this week that it would be on TRLiveStream.
• Richie Mepranum-Julio Cesar Miranda, Saturday, Mexico. Mepranum, the latest Filipino prospect to add evidence to the notion that everyone in the Philippines is a boxing prospect right now, has fought one top opponent in his career. Three years ago, he lost to Denkaosan Kaovichit, currently ranked #4 at flyweight by Ring magazine -- when Mepranum was 20 years old. But he didn't lose by much. Now, he fights Miranda for a vacant title, who in the last two years has lost to two of the leading lights of the division, lineal champion Pongsaklek Wonjongkam and Moruti Mthalane. Mepranum only has five knockouts in 22 wins, but he did recently decision big-punching Hernan Marquez (Nonito Donaire's next opponent), so he must have a little pop, or else a lot of skill.
• Friday Night Fights, Friday, ESPN2, Canada. The good thing about this card is that it offers U.S. television exposure to David Lemieux, who has the makings of a very exciting fighter. The super middleweight has all kinds of power, and he's not a terrible boxer. Let's see what he does with Elvin Ayala, who fought Sergio Mora to a draw but got KO'd by Arthur Abraham. That Ayala went 12 with Abraham before succumbing to one of the biggest punchers in the sport suggests he might offer some resistance, even if he's unlikely to win. On the undercard, Sebastien Demers continues trying to estabish himself at super middleweight after losing at 160 to Abraham (yes, by knockout -- the 3rd) and Dionisio Miranda (by split decision). It's not encouraging that Demers was held to a majority decision by a very shopworn William Joppy in his last fight. He's fighting Brandon Vera, who got that big upset win over Andy Lee, then stubbornly took a beating from James Kirkland that made everyone wince, and since has lost two more to prospects.
  
• Solo Boxeo, Friday, TeleFutura, California. There isn't much out there yet about headlining junior featherweight prospect Christopher Martin, who's 17-0-2 and has five knockouts. He's taking on Adolfo Landeros, whom Guillermo Rigondeaux victimized last time out in 28 seconds with a body shot, and who has lost seven of his last nine. The co-feature spot is held by 9-0 welterweight prospect Luis Enrique Grajeda, who evidently hits a little harder than Martin (seven knockouts) and takes on Jaime Orrantio, who's lost 29 fights in his career, all to busted prospects or journeymen.