By Jason Kim: A number of super middleweights will be getting a huge chance to prove themselves in a prospective super middleweight tournament that Showtime, the U.S. cable network, is in the planning stages to get up involving the best fighters in the division such as Mikkel Kessler, Carl Froch, Arthur Abraham, Andre Ward, Jermain Taylor and Andre Dirrell.
Thus far, the tournament is still in the planning stages and nothing has been confirmed. However, if it does take place it would be quite popular given that the best fighters in the division would be forced to fight each other over a period of a year.
According to ESPN writer Dan Rafael, the first two bouts of the tournament would be between Froch and Dirrell, and Jermain Taylor and Abraham on October 10th. Abraham would be moving up from the middleweight, which he has been struggling to make weight in the past couple of fights, to fight the former middleweight champion Taylor who was recently stopped by Froch in the 12th round in April.
It will be a tough fight for either fighter, because Abraham has never faced a fighter with the boxing skills or speed of Taylor, whereas Taylor will be in a bad position given that he’s coming off a knockout loss to Froch. Taylor has had problems against big punchers being beaten twice by Kelly Pavlik in the past.
The next fight in the tournament would be between Kessler and Ward on November 7th. This is a fight that can’t take place unless Kessler is able to resolve his problems with his promoter before hand. One hopes that the problems will be ironed out by November 7th, so this fight can take place.
It’s hard to say who would be the winner of this fight. Both Kessler and Ward are excellent counter punchers with great defensive skills and good hand speed. Ward, 25, is the younger and slightly quicker fighter with more versatility. However, Ward hasn’t faced anyone as close to being as good as the 30-year-old Kessler, so this could be a big shock for him.
Kessler is very sound defensively and doesn’t give his opponents a lot of openings for them to take advantage. For his part, Kessler has faced only a handful of talented fighters in his 11 year pro career beating Librado Andrade, Anthony Mundine, Eric Lucas, Markus Beyer and losing to Joe Calzaghe in a 12-round decision loss in November 2007. Kessler has done little since that loss, beating the little known Dimitri Sartison and Danilo Haussler in 2008.
The 4th fight in the tournament would be between Abraham and Dirrell on January 30th. This would be a great fight matching Dirrell, a Bronze Medalist in the 2004 Olympics for the United States, with his blazing hand speed against the power punching Abraham, who has held the International Boxing Federation middleweight crown since 2006.
Dirrell, 26, looks to have the goods to be one of the best fighters in the super middleweight division already. However, he hasn’t faced any solid fighters yet with his best wins coming against Victor Oganov and Anthony Hanshaw, both of whom Dirrell easily beat stopping both of them inside the distance. This fight would be good for Abraham should he win because he would get a lot of attention in the fight because it will be aired in the U.S on Showtime, which will increase Abraham’s popularity if he looks good.
Froch would then be facing Kessler in March in the next fight. This would give Froch a chance to fight Kessler, who Froch has been interested in fighting for quite some time. A win over Kessler would help cement Froch as being on the same level as Calzaghe, a fighter that never gave Froch a chance to prove himself against him by choosing not to fight him.
The next bout (the 6th fight in the tournament) would be between Taylor and Ward in April or May. According to Rafael, there also could be a fight between Froch and Kessler on this card instead of in the earlier date.
In then 7th fight of the tournament in July or August, Ward, the 2004 Olympic Gold Medalist for the United States, would be facing Dirrell. Currently, the two fighters are considered to be by many boxing experts as the best two prospects in the super middleweight division. Both fighters are excellent counter punchers and have great hand speed.
In July or possibly August 2010, Froch and Abraham would meet up in the 8th fight of the tournament. Also, Dirrell vs. Ward could also be showed on then same date as this one. The Froch-Abraham bout would be especially interesting, matching two big power punchers with not much hand speed or defense between them.
Kessler would then meet up with Taylor in the final bout of the preliminary tournament. Following this, the semi finals would start in January 2011. The finals would be starting in May or June 2011.
There won’t be any losers in a tournament like this, because the fighters will all get a chance to show their talent to a wide audience over and over again rather instead of against lesser fighters.
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