Showtime Super Middleweight Tournament
Abraham, Dirrell, Froch, Kessler, Taylor & Ward all slated to fight in Super Middleweight Tournament
Showtime has announced an absolutely huge super middleweight tournament dubbed the "Super Six." Featuring six of the best fighters in the super middleweight division, the Super Six Showtime Tournament is going to be one of the biggest and most ambitious scheduled boxing tournaments in recent history.
If you thought the super middleweight division was hot before this, just wait until you see what's slated for the upcoming two years.
The participants for the Showtime Super Six Super Middleweight Tournament are as follows:
- Mikkel Kessler – 41(30) – 1 – WBA Champion
- Carl Froch – 25 (20) – 0 – WBC Champion
- Arthur Abraham – 30 (24) – 0 – Former IBF Middleweight Champion
- Jermain Taylor – 28 (17) – 3 – 1 – Former Undisputed Middleweight Champion
- Andre Dirrell – 18 (13) – 0 – American Olympic Bronze Medalist
- Andre Ward – 19 (12) – 0 – American Olympic Gold Medalist
This is a truly huge undertaking that is going to provide boxing fans with some of the biggest and best match ups. While it doesn't include every big name in the ridiculously deep super middleweight division, it includes a lot of them including the recognized best super middleweight fighter in the world, Mikkel Kessler, and a total of four undefeated fighters.
Over the next year or two all of these fighters have signed on to fight any of the other fighters on the list. All of the available championships will be on the line, and all of the fights will be for 12 rounds. Fights will be held at various sites in both America and Europe to make it fair for the field which features three Americans and three Europeans.
The Showtime Super Six Super Middleweight Tournament is not an elimination tournament, but rather is a round robin tournament. The first three stages will take place over the next year, with fighters being awarded points depending on their performances. A win gets a fighter 2 points, with an extra point for a stoppage win; a draw is 1 point and a loss is of course 0 points.
After the first three rounds, the four fighters with the most points move on to the semifinals where they will face each other based on seed (1 versus 4 and 2 versus 3). The winners of these bouts will then meet in the super middleweight tournament final, which will be held sometime in the beginning of 2011.
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The first stage of matches is already scheduled and the match-ups are:
- Carl Froch vs. Andre Dirrell – October 10th
- Jermain Taylor vs. Arthur Abraham
- Mikkel Kessler vs. Andre Ward – October 10th
Major props to the fighters, the promoters and the network for pulling this off. The fighters are all taking a major risk but the reward will be great for the man who comes away from this heap as the top dog. He'll own the two most prestigious belts and be the recognized division kingpin.
The competition is extraordinarily deep in this six man field (three of the top five super middleweights in the world according to the rankings at Pro Fighting Fans, and five of the top 10) and a lot – or all – of those 0's will be going.
Stay tuned with Pro Fighting Fans for all the latest coverage on the Showtime Super Six Super Middleweight Tournament!
By Jake Emen
ProFighting-fans.com Staff Writer & Director of Boxing Content