Andre Dirrell’s withdrawal of Showtime’s Super Six tournament was met with a ?not again? by boxing fans. Out of the original six participants in Showtime’s innovative tournament, half pulled themselves out of the competition.
First, it was former undisputed middleweight champion Jermain Taylor, who was on the receiving end of a crushing 12th round KO from Arthur Abraham that left the former champion unconscious on the mat and the loser of 4 of his last 5 fights; 3 by brutal KO.
Then, it was former top super middleweight Mikkel Kessler who cited an eye injury as reason for his withdrawal.
Now Dirrell, who has reportedly been experiencing neurological problems since his DQ win over Arthur Abraham last March, is out of the tournament ans his career in question.
Showtime says the tourney will go on, but it’s obviously not the same.
Taylor was replaced by Allan Green, who didn’t show much in making people believe he deserved to be a part of the tournament in losing a lopsided decision to Andre Ward last June.
Kessler will be replaced by former light heavyweight champion Glen Johnson as the tournament moves forward. A choice that is intriguing since it’ll be an opportunity for an old dog who still has fight like Johnson to get another shot at glory in a weight division he hasn’t competed in in about 10 years.
But what to do with Dirrell?
Dirrell was scheduled to fight Andre Ward in September. Then, that fight was postponed without explanation to November. Now, it won’t happen altogether.
The ideal choice for a replacement would be Lucian Bute, but that’s not happening. Bute has been fighting on showtime’s rival HBO in recent bouts and probably feels the sting of not being invited to the tournament to begin with.
Sakio Bika would be another good choice, but reports say his father recently passed away and he would not be prepared for training camp for a fight in the near future.
Problems. Problems. Problems.
But look on the bright side. This tournament gave us intriguing fights like Andre Ward vs. Mikkel Kessler, Kessler vs. Carl Froch, and we still have interesting match-ups like Glen Johnson vs. Allan Green and Arthur Abraham vs. Froch on the way.
The tournament’s concept was good. The execution was flawed and near impossible go smoothly. However, in the end we’re still getting some competitive fights in the ring.
I’ll take that and be happy, even if I’m disappointed we won’t get a clear cut winner of the tournament out of the original field of fighters.
