Dirrell-Ward to fight for WBC title, not Froch-Abraham

By Boxing News - 09/06/2010 - Comments

Image: Dirrell-Ward to fight for WBC title, not Froch-AbrahamBy Scott Gilfoid: The World Boxing Council voted today on what should happen with Mikkel Kessler’s WBC super-middleweight title, and instead of making the October 2nd fight between former WBC super middleweight champion Carl Froch vs. Arthur Abraham, the WBC voted to have the WBC title on the line for the scheduled September 25th bout between the talented Americans Andre Dirrell (19-1, 13 KO’s) and Andre Ward (22-0, 13 KO’s).

It doesn’t matter if the Ward-Dirrell fight doesn’t place on September 25th, the WBC title will still be up for grabs when they do fight in October. This is probably going to boil Froch’s kettle because he was hoping that he could fight for his old WBC title in the Abraham bout on October 2nd, but now it looks like the WBC title is going to winner of the Dirrell vs. Ward bout.

I can’t really figure out the reasons why the WBC voted this way, other than maybe they saw the Dirrell and Ward as the guys that are looking good right now. Ward has dominated both of his opponents in the Super Six, and Dirrell beat Abraham in his last fight in the tourney on March 27th. Dirrell did lose to Froch, but that was controversial decision that many people disagreed with. The fight took place in Froch’s home city of Nottingham, England.

The WBC says that the Froch-Abraham fight will be “sanctioned as the final eliminator bout” with the winner to face the winner of the Dirrell-Ward fight for the WBC super middleweight crown. It’s not such big deal, though, because the winner of the Froch-Abraham fight is already going to be fighting the winner of the Dirrell-Ward fight, so this is kind of a symbolic gesture on the WBC’s part.
In the meantime, Kessler has been given the title of “Champion Emeritus and Ambassador of Good Will” due to his eye injury that’s going to keep him out of action for nine months. Kessler will then be permitted to fight for the WBC title at some point in the future when his eye heals, if it heals.

This is kind of nice though. Ward already has the WBA super middleweight title, and now with the WBC title being up for grabs, it’s two titles instead of one. This will further validate the Dirrell-Ward winner as the main guy in the division. To be sure, they’ll still have one fight left in the Super Six tournament against the Froch-Abraham winner, but this victory will have Dirrell or Ward looking good as they go into the finals of the Super Six tourney.

I can’t blame the WBC for wanting to put the WBC title up for the Dirrell vs. Ward fight rather than the Froch vs. Abraham bout. Both Froch and Abraham are coming off of losses, and both of them looked horrible. Dirrell and Ward have won their last fights in the tourney.



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