In this week’s fights-in-the-works post, have to start with the latest wrinkle in the Super Six. Sakio Bika has stepped in as the next opponent for super middleweight Andre Ward after Andre Dirrell pulled out, although it won’t be an official part of Showtime’s super middleweight tournament. My first reaction was, “Good replacement. Sakio Bika’s ranked sixth by Ring, and there’s nobody better available.” It’s still true.
But there is some skepticism about the replacement since Bika, like Dirrell, is managed by Al Haymon. I admit the thought didn’t occur to me at first. I suppose the fear is that Dirrell never intended to fight Ward, and that at a certain point, Bika would come in and Haymon would get two of his clients things they wanted, which is why Bika didn’t take the chance to replace Mikkel Kessler when he had one?
For this to work out for Haymon et al — and let’s point out that there’s zero evidence on this theory that anyone has brought to light — a few things have to happen, and you have to explain away some hole
