After much conjecture and speculation, it was finally announced on Friday afternoon that on November 27th, Showtime will be televising a split-site super middleweight doubleheader featuring Carl Froch-Arthur Abraham and Andre Dirrell-Andre Ward. In short, the ?Super Six,? which is the network?s modified round-robin tournament, was alive and well. It would continue on as originally planned.
Mission impossible became mission accomplished.
“Yeah, people honoring their agreements. What a miracle,” said the czar of Showtime?s boxing franchise, Ken Hershman, with a relieved laugh on Friday evening.
Last year, when the network unveiled their innovative tournament format, it was hailed as a revolutionary concept that would bring the best boxers in the world together for a series of fights, while also bringing clarity to a given weight class. And from a critical standpoint, the ?Super Six? has been a success, at least inside the ring.
Andre Ward has broken out as a star; Froch and Abraham suffered their first professional defeats in stage two and Kessler and Froch engaged in one of the better fights of 2010 back in April. But on the downside, you had the removal of Jermain Taylor (after he was halted by Abraham last October), the reluctance of Froch to fight anywhere near five time zones of Germany versus Abraham, the justified backlash of rival promoters against Ward and Dan Goossen, who somehow finagled two home fights in Oakland in the first two stages.
But as Kessler dropped out of the ?Super Six? entirely, citing an eye ailment and the mysterious non-happenings regarding the Dirrell-Ward fight (which was originally slated to take place on September 25th), it looked as though this whole thing would fall apart.
What do they say about the best laid plans of mice and men?
But Hershman stayed firm. Everyone involved had signed up for this; they knew what they were getting into. You got into this and you ain?t getting out of it.
“It was basically, ?Live up to your agreements? as it related to everybody,” said Hershman, of the message he relayed to the parties who were wavering. “Obviously, with Kessler leaving the tournament, it created an opportunity I thought to sort of accelerate this thing, restructure it just slightly and get right to the semi-finals, which I thought was in everyone?s interest. That didn?t happen and we had to back to the original agreement. So when that became, y? know, people dragging their feet, it became important for me to spread that message.”
So why didn?t Ward-Dirrell take place this past weekend? And why was there so much doubt that this fight would even be rescheduled?
“Well, you?d have to ask them that,” said Hershman, of Goossen and Gary Shaw, the two promoters involved. “I never really got an explanation. That agreement was entered into almost
