By William Mackay: After the first stage of Showtime’s Super Six tournament some boxing fans of the opinion that former middleweight champion Jermain Taylor is the first fighter that is technically shot in the tournament. Taylor was knocked out by the hard hitting Arthur Abraham in a 12th round stoppage loss in October. The knockout loss was particularly brutal to the point where Taylor pulled out of the tournament entirely. Taylor has since been replaced by super middleweight contender Allan Green. Taylor, of course, had already suffered bad knockout losses to Kelly Pavlik and Carl Froch even before the Super Six tournament began, so it’s difficult to say whether Taylor lost it completely in the tournament or started slipping before it began.
Below I’ve listed the fighters that I believe could be shot fighters by the end of the tournament.
Mikkel Kessler – Depending on how Mikkel does in his fights against Carl Froch and Allan Green in the stage 2 and stage 3 part of the competition, I can see Kessler ending up at the end of his career with very little options available to him. Kessler was already badly dominated by Andre Ward in their first stage 1 bout, a fight that Kessler lost by an 11 round technical decision. He blames the loss on head butts from Ward, but Kessler never had a chance in the fight. He just wasn’t quick enough for the faster Ward and ended up getting dominated. Kessler had looked bad even before this fight after coming back from a year off from boxing. I think the time off may have aged Kessler. I doubt that Kessler will have anything left by the end of the tourney. He could surprise some people by winning his next two fights against Froch and Green. If so, then I’ll change my mind about him, but as of now he’s going to have to prove that he can do this. I see him as pretty shot.
Carl Froch – Although Froch won his first fight of the stage 1 Super Six against Andre Dirrell, I think Froch lost that fight and looked poor in losing it. Apart from his fouling, Froch was never able to really compete with Dirrell in that fight. He held hit, threw rabbit punches and even body slammed Dirrell. There were very few clean shots thrown by Froch in that fight, and had it not taken place in Nottingham, England, Froch’s hometown, I believe he would have lost the fight by a landslide. I think things might get worse for Froch in his next two fights of the tourney against Kessler and Abraham. Kessler could end up out-boxing Froch and winning a lopsided decision. This time, though, the fight won’t be taking place in Nottingham, so I can see Froch losing the fight by lopsided decision. In Froch’s stage 3 bout, he’ll be facing Abraham. This is a bad match up for Froch because of Abraham’s huge power. Froch tends to go right at his opponents trying to overpower them. He won’t be able to overpower Abraham and I can see Froch being destroyed in the same way Joe Frazier was destroyed by a young George Foreman. If that occurs, then Froch will have lost two out of his last three fights and will be eliminated from the tourney. By then, Froch will be at the end of his rope with little options.
Allan Green – Allan has great physical skills going for him, but he has no real significant wins over top level opposition during his career. I think Super Six is going to be problems for him starting with his fight with Andre Ward in April. I expect Green to be knocked out in that fight and never really competitive with Ward. It will likely be shocking to some how badly Ward dominates Green and makes him look like an older fighter, but this is what I see happening. In Green’s stage 3 bout of the Super Six tournament, he’ll be facing Kessler. I suspect Green will be knocked out once again and end up looking bad.
Fighters that may end up losing the tournament but could still win titles in the future:
Andre Dirrell – if Dirrell ends up being beaten by all three of his opponents in the Super Six tourney, which is a real possibility, he still will have a future ahead of him because of his youth and his blazing hand speed. Dirrell might be better off moving down in weight to middleweight rather than staying at super middleweight. Dirrell is kind of skinny for the division and he might be able to find success at middleweight.
Arthur Abraham – Unlike a lot of people, I don’t see Abraham winning the Super Six tourney. He’s too slow, too stationary and doesn’t throw enough punches. However, even if and when he’s eliminated, he’ll be able to find some success at super middleweight because of his power. I can see him winning one of the titles and holding down for a short period of time. He’ll eventually get beaten by a pure boxer. I think Abraham will have problems against Kessler, Dirrell and Ward.
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