Super Six second stage taking form

by SC on Nov 23, 2009 9:50 AM EST in News Analysis Comment 9 comments

Stage two of the suddenly even more compelling Super Six World Boxing Classic is starting to take loose form, as dates for the next batch of fights have started to float around.

January 23 is being looked at as the date for Arthur Abraham's fight with Andre Dirrell, for which Abraham will come to the United States. Of all the fighters, Dirrell has the weakest chance at hometown advantage. Being from Michigan gives Dirrell very limited options, and he's got the smallest following of anyone in the tournament. There hasn't been a major fight in the Great Lakes state for a good while now, and I don't see the interest being there out in Flint (Dirrell's hometown) or in Detroit. The closest he might be able to get is Chicago, which is a long drive from Dirrell's side of the state, or maybe Cleveland. Or they could just say, "What the hell? Stick it in New York," which is probably most likely.

But the New York thing would depend on the date. Bob Arum and Top Rank will be running at WaMu Theater at Madison Square Garden that night with their HBO double-header (Luevano-Lopez, Gamboa-Mtagwa). If Showtime could move the date up a week to January 16 (their TV graphic this past weekend did have Abraham-Dirrell coming in January, and nothing more), everything could be hunky dory. They also wouldn't face any TV opposition. Going to January 30 is surely out of the question, what with HBO having the Shane Mosley-Andre Berto fight that night. There's splitting audiences, and then there's scheduling two major fights people are interested in on the same night. The latter almost never happens, and there are good reasons for it. Both Mosley-Berto and Abraham-Dirrell are too expensive to lose viewers. Maybe even move it to early February if need be.

It appears likely, too, that the Carl Froch-Mikkel Kessler bout is going to take place on March 6 in Denmark. This fight has such an interesting dynamic, and so many angles. Froch deserved to lose the fight he won over Andre Dirrell, in the opinion of many, but he didn't, so he remains unbeaten and holds the WBC title. Kessler was routed by Andre Ward on Saturday to lose his WBA title, but if Kessler beats Froch, not only is he right back in the tournament, but he's right back in the title mix with the WBC strap. Kessler is still going to be favored by a lot of people in this fight, I expect.

There's nothing rumored yet for Andre Ward-Jermain Taylor, and I'd assume Taylor gets "home field" for that one, which would probably put the bout in Memphis.

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Kessler

That Kessler v. Froch fight looks to have the most subplots and interest, at least for me. I don’t know if Kessler was simply that ineffective, or if Ward just made him look that way. Froch certainly doesn’t have Ward’s speed or athletic ability, but he will be able to fight even better on the inside than Ward was able to. Kessler may just lose 2 in a row, and both by convincing fashion.

"Though liberals do a great deal of talking about hearing other points of view, it sometimes shocks them to learn that there are other points of view." - William F. Buckley, Jr.

by Josh Trull on Nov 23, 2009 10:08 AM EST reply actions 0 recs

On a semi-related note

Now that Andre Ward has beaten Mikkel Kessler for his ‘Super’ WBA title, and with a ‘regular’ WBA champ (Sartison) literally being crowned just a few hours earlier, are there now two equal champions of the same organisation? Or is Ward now the super champion himself, in which case when does the distinction expire?

Furthermore, is the WBA going to mandate a match any time soon? With the super six, it’s unlikely to be available for a couple of years, even if all parties were interested.

Why couldn’t they just make Bozic/Sartison an eliminator or some such?
CURSE YOU, SANCTIONING BODIES!!

by thirdslip on Nov 23, 2009 1:09 PM EST reply actions 0 recs

They’ll probably be OK with it until the Super Six is over. They get fees from Ward and Sartison, which is why they do this crap anyway. They’ll probably crown an interim “champion” in about two months.

Bad Left Hook
"Well Howie, I think I'm going to stay outside and outjab him." -- Tex Cobb telling Howard Cosell how he would approach Larry Holmes

by SC on Nov 23, 2009 1:22 PM EST up reply actions 0 recs

I ventured onto their website

and it looks as though they use the boatloads of extra sanctioning fees to finance a single web designer who checks in once every few months, and hasn’t developed any new knowledge his he graduated from his course 8 years ago.

I didn’t find many answers; their champions list hasn’t been updated since January, and there certainly isn’t anything addressing the incongruities of the Ward/Sartison situation. I did find plenty on their recent conference though, including that Don King was presented with an award for being such an all-around great guy.

by thirdslip on Nov 23, 2009 1:56 PM EST up reply actions 0 recs

Ward stays "Super" champ

The WBA made Kessler the Super champ since they knew that at some point in the tournament the belts would need to get unified, and that’s still the case.

Bad Left Hook - The SB Nation boxing blog
"Baseball is played on the field, not on a calculator."

by Brickhaus on Nov 23, 2009 2:14 PM EST up reply actions 0 recs

Ward has all three fights in Oakland

Mentioned a couple times this week and during one of the fight camp 360s. All the promoters threw a simultaneous hissy fit, but I think they just gave them more money and then they promptly shut up about it until press conference time.

by waldo47 on Nov 23, 2009 2:24 PM EST reply actions 0 recs