The super six tournament at one time seemed like a boxing fans dream. In concept it was the perfect stage for this magnitude of fights with this level of fighters. Throw 6 of the best fighters in together and see who comes out on top, and boxing fans would get to see it all unfold over the course of 2 years. However, the promoters may have been a little too excited, or maybe just may not have anticipated that putting a man like Arthur Abraham in a tournament like the super six would have certain repercussions.
Arthur Abraham is a ridiculously huge puncher, so how would having him in such an exciting tournament be a negative?
Well, if you consider the problems the super six has had, 2 of the 3 fighters that have been eliminated were forced to pull out due to Abrahams right hand.
Sure, he produced the tournaments first (official) knockout win, but that was at the cost of Jermain Taylor’s career and his next fight with Andre Ward, which would have definitely been a better fight than Ward-Green.
Then we have Andre Dirrell who was amazingly talented and who was obviously in his prime. Some may argue that he was robbed in his fight with Carl Froch, although it turns out that he was in for some bigger problems than Froch.
While he was pulling out a clear victory, Abraham hits Dirrell after Dirrell slipped in the 11th rd, eliminating yet another exciting fighter and preventing the most intriguing match-up in the scheduled Dirrell-Ward fight.
So what is the damage Arthur Abraham inadvertently caused just by being in the tournament?
Well, being hit by someone who hits like a heavyweight is bad, especially if you are scheduled to fight within a few months. It puts miles on your tank. It makes for exciting fights, but once the tournament is over, how many careers have been altered by having to face such a devastating puncher?
The answer so far is #2.
Having a puncher like Abraham in the tournament is like throwing a pit bull in the mix with 5 golden retrievers: it’s not hard to imagine that he would rough up the fighters a lot more than they needed to be. Taylor and Dirrell so far have been put away by Abraham, but what would have happened if it were Allan Green instead of Abraham in the super six?
Taylor probably would have stayed in to give Andre Ward a good match, and likewise in Dirrell’s case. Dirrell was turning a lot of heads, and a fight with Ward was to be the most anticipated of the tournament.
So the result of having a big puncher in a six man tournament is not exactly always a bad thing, it just happened to be in this case. When one punch can change everything, putting someone like Abraham in there does nothing but increases the odds that fighters will be eliminated, injured, or just plain shot at the end of the tournament.
The only one who seems to have benefited from Abraham’s destruction is Ward, who fought Kessler and Green, who both proved to be equally worthless challenges for him. So Ward is probably going to leave this tournament about the same way he went in, as he didn’t take much punishment. It’s not his fault, its not Abrahams fault, but its boxing, and you should always anticipate the future.
Maybe they weren’t thinking that Abraham being in the tournament would cause the problems it did, but hopefully they aren’t discouraged from treating boxing fans to more tournaments. It was their first time experimenting with boxing tournaments at this level, and it was a bit of a blunder, but that doesn’t necessarily mean that the concept of a tournament won’t work for boxing.
All the next super six would need in order to be successful is some minor adjustments, such as not throwing a puncher like Abraham with so many fresh fighters who still have a lot left to give us.
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