More Super Six Setbacks
Dan Rafael is reporting that the Super Six organizers have yet another issue to contend with. This time in the form of a postponement of the highly anticipated Froch vs. Abraham fight.
The Super Six World Boxing Classic, already teetering on the brink of falling apart, took another big hit when Carl Froch, citing a back injury, withdrew from a scheduled Oct. 2 fight in Monte Carlo against Arthur Abraham.
“We were informed [Monday] morning of a back injury that prohibits him to fight on Oct. 2, but that would allow him a fight about seven or eight weeks later,” Chris Meyer of Sauerland Event, Abraham’s promoter, told ESPN.com
The good news I suppose is that the injury is not forcing him to withdraw from the tournament entirely, so all is not lost. If any of the big four were to drop out at this point it would probably be curtains for the series. It does come hot on the heels of Kessler’s departure though, and with uncertainty still hanging over the Ward/Dirrell bout, this probably doesn’t bode well for those of us with our hopes pinned on there being a Super Six volume 2.
Another problem is that the fight was scheduled for a neutral venue, and was going to be reliant on traveling support. There’s surely many fight fans now wondering what to do with flights and accommodation for Monaco on the weekend of October 2nd. A lot of rescheduling will need to be done, and ultimately it’s the fans who are going to be hit in the pocket. It was already going to be a tricky sell, and it could now be a case of once bitten twice shy when the new date roles around.
When you take on a project as ambitious as this one, there is always going to be a certain amount of teething problems. But this tournament has brought a lot of good back into Boxing. It’s given people a reason to care about the Super middleweight division again, we have had some great fights, new stars are being developing, and the end result will be a universally recognized world champion. Hopefully people will also weigh up that positive worth when they are mulling over the drawbacks. My fear is that the concept may now be filled away under “more hassle than it’s worth”, and the networks will be left too spooked to take the chance again.
The best possible result will be if Ward and Dirrell can get their issues ironed out to coincide with Froch’s return. That will allow ShowTime to either run a big semifinal double bill, or at least have the two fights within a close interval of each other, and maybe start to turn the momentum back in the favour of the Boxing Classic.
