By Scott Gilfoid: Andre Ward’s impeccable 11th round technical decision over the Super Six number #1 seed Mikkel Kessler appears to have taken a lot of the air out of the sails of boxing fans of Arthur Abraham, Kessler and Carl Froch. Ward’s win over Kessler was so one-sided that you barely hear a peep out of some of the excitable European fans. You’re also not hearing to much from Jermain Taylor fans either, although it’s not surprising given viciousness of his 12th round stoppage loss to Abraham in their Super Six tournament fight on October 17th.
Could the Super Six tournament be all but decided now that Ward has wiped out Kessler? Gosh, I really hope not. I was hoping for some suspense and for someone to give the talented Dirrell and Ward some competition. But after the first fights of the tourney, it’s looking like either Ward or Dirrell will be the eventual winner of the Super Six tourney. Abraham, incidentally, is in the lead at this present time by virtue of his knockout win over Taylor.
However, not too many people are thinking that Abraham will be able to hold that lead for long, because his next fight is against Dirrell in January. That’s really bad luck for Abraham, because of all the fighters he could have been pitted against in his second fight, he had to be put in with Dirrell.
The American fighter might be the best fighter in the entire tournament, as he has boxing skills similar to blend of Muhammad Ali, Sugar Ray Robinson and Floyd Mayweather Jr. Unfortunately, Dirrell has no points in the Super Six tournament right now after traveling to Froch’s home city of Nottingham and losing a questionable 12 round split decision to Froch. Instead of being bitter about it.
Dirrell has remained positive and has vowed to make up for the controversial loss by beating Abraham in his next bout. I fully expect Dirrell to make an example of Abraham and beat him like no tomorrow.
But Ward is the man of the hour after his win over Kessler. Ward went out and dominated Kessler like he was beating a school boy. It was sickening how badly Ward beat Kessler. Yeah, some of Kessler’s defenders are complaining that Ward clashed heads with Kessler a small number of times and that he hit him with an elbow or two. But lets be clear about this: The head butts weren’t the reason why Kessler was beaten up. They may have caused the cuts on Kessler’s face, but they weren’t what reddened and swelled up Kessler’s face. It was Ward’s constant flow of lightning fast punches that had Kessler looking like a defeated man by the 8th round.
Who is there in the Super Six that can give Ward any real problems? Abraham doesn’t throw enough punches to beat Ward. If Abraham fights in his typical manner of only fighting hard for the last 30 seconds of every round, then he’ll take a major beating from Ward, much worse than the beating that Abraham took at the hands of Edison Miranda in their first fight. Carl Froch doesn’t have the hand speed, foot movement or the defense to give Ward any problems.
I think Froch will be harder to beat compared to Abraham because Froch believes in fighting hard for the full three minutes of every round, but Froch will still be over his head against the lightning fast Ward. Kessler has already been beaten by Ward, and I see Kessler getting stopped even sooner next time around. He won’t want to take a another beating and will likely fold fast against Ward the second time around.
Jermain Taylor has taken too much punishment in the last three fights and I can’t see him staying together for long with Ward pounding him with big shots. When it comes down to it, I can only see Dirrell giving Ward any problems. The only reason I see Dirrell doing so well is because of his excellent boxing skills. Dirrell moves better than Ward, has faster hand speed and better power. Everything that Ward does, Dirrell does better except for jab.
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