The long-awaited comeback fight of unbeaten champion Andre Ward (28-0, 14 KOs) is just around the corner as he battles England's super middleweight champion Paul Smith Jr. (35-5, 19 KOs) at the Oracle Arena in Oakland, California on June 20.

Ward, the reigning Lineal/WBA super middleweight champion, last fought in November 2013 at the Citizens Business Bank Arena in Ontario, California against Dominican Republic's Edwin Rodriguez, where he retained his WBA (Super), WBC and The Ring super middleweight titles. After more than a year of inactivity, he was stripped of his WBC and The Ring belts but kept the WBA (Super).

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His title is not on the line for this scheduled 12-rounder with Smith as Ward only tries to come back and revive a sinking career that went on a downhill trend after his promoter Dan Goossen died of liver complications nine months ago.

On the other hand, for Smith, this is an opportunity of a lifetime to fight in front of a mainstream audience and showcase himself as a world-class boxer.

Coming off two consecutive unanimous decision losses versus Germany' Arthur Abraham, the 32-year-old Liverpool native is seen by a lot of boxing pundits as just a warm-up opponent for Ward to prepare himself for potential future mega fights against elite fighters.

Odds makers expect him to lose big-time in this coming fight, as reported by Boxing News 24, and the only issue seems to be whether he will get "knocked out or outpointed."

However, Smith believes that he is not going to be a helpless prey that would just stand in front of Ward for the entire duration of the match.

He told SkySports that "every fighter has got two arms and a chin." He also claimed that he can catch Ward with one punch because the 31-year-old San Francisco native leaves himself open from time to time whenever he attacks.

Bleacher Report indicated that this is an interesting return bout for Ward as Smith is definitely no pushover when it comes to his boxing skills, size, and strength. If Ward will not be able to pull this one off, he risks sliding his career further down the gutters.

Meanwhile, Smith stands to gain from this fight whether he wins or not. If he loses, which most fans expect, then he had just proven that he can stand toe-to-toe with a world-class boxer. If he wins, then he can be promoted as a top-level fighter even at this late stage of his career.

The verdict: A unanimous decision win for Ward. He will be able to fight off rust as the match goes deeper in the later rounds. Smith will not find that one-punch KO that he's bragging about.

TagsBoxing, Boxing 2015, Boxing News, Boxing News 2015, Boxing Rumors, Boxing Rumors 2015, andre ward, Paul Smith