As America just was starting to wake up Wednesday, a press conference in Denmark was threatening the creditability and even the continuation of the Super Six World Boxing Classic.
WBC champion Mikkel Kessler announced that he was withdrawing from the groundbreaking tournament because of a serious eye injury, explaining that he had to “give up my big dream.” Unless it acts quickly, Showtime is in serious danger of joining Kessler in seeing a big dream collapse.
Kessler’s progress in the tournament had been the best example of what a breath of fresh air the Super Six has been, with the initial favorite bouncing back from his shocking loss to underdog Andre Ward by handing Carl Froch his firs defeat. With the tournament about to restart with the final round of matches in its group stage, Kessler was expected to complete the comeback by defeating Allan Green on Sept. 25 to secure a spot in the semifinals.
That fight has been canceled and it’s hard to see what benefit there is in keeping Green in the tournament. Green came into the Super Six as a replacement for Jermain Taylor, and having lost to Ward in his only tournament match, he surely would have needed a knockout to advance. In any case, the sight of two substitutes fighting for a semifinal place would make a mockery of the tournament.
But that isn’t the only problem plaguing the Super Six, with tickets still having not yet gone on sale for either Andre Dirrell vs. Ward or Carl Froch vs. Arthur Abraham. This is despite both being due to take place in around a month’s time.
Worse, there is some doubt about whether Dirrell-Ward actually will go ahead, with neither fighter willing to travel to the other’s hometown. Ward has argued for the fight to take place in Vegas, but it’s difficult to see Ward-Dirrell doing well there without strong support on the undercard. Froch and Abraham at least have an agreed location for their fight, but as glamorous as Monaco is, it’s far away from either fighter’s passionate home support.
Amid all these arguments and squabbles, the momentum that the Super Six had last year has been lost. Both remaining fights are excellent, with Dirrell vs. Ward pairing two old friends and former Olympic teammates, while Froch vs. Abraham pits two of boxing’s most exciting brawlers. These should be huge matches in the boxing calendar, but to fulfill their potential they need to be for high stakes, properly promoted to fight fans, and take place in a genuine boxing hotbed.
The only logical way for Showtime to proceed is to cancel the final round of the group stage and move forward with Ward vs. Dirrell and Abraham vs. Froch as the semifinals. To help recapture the attention of the boxing world and escape the protracted and tiresome arguments about who should have home advantage, these semifinals should take place at the same neutral venue on the same night. Such a doubleheader would stand a much better chance of performing well in a major market such as Las Vegas or New York than either fight could by itself.
Using these fights as the semifinals would not only help keep the tournament on schedule but also would ensure that the final is an American-European affair, giving fans on either side of the Atlantic a fighter to root for.
If the Super Six is going to recover, then Showtime needs to recognize that continuing with the group stage is a waste of everyone’s time and relaunch the tournament in a high-profile fashion. If it fails to take the necessary action, then at best the Super Six will limp to an unsatisfyingily anticlimactic conclusion, and at worst the whole tournament could collapse.
