On Saturday in Atlantic City, N.J., Andre Ward will meet Carl Froch for the Super Six championship at venerable Boardwalk Hall.
It?s the kind of matchup the tournament?s organizers dreamed about when it was just in the conceptual stage. The tournament, though, hasn?t worked out exactly as planned. It hasn?t created a star. It hasn?t gotten boxing fans riveted on the super middleweight division. And it hasn?t had the kind of drama and closely contested bouts that seemed likely when the field was introduced in July 2009.
Arthur Abraham, one of the pre-tournament favorites, performed dismally. After an impressive opening win over Jermain Taylor, he was disqualified in a bout he was losing to Andre Dirrell, and was easily blown out by Froch and Ward.
Taylor got throttled by Abraham and dropped out. Dirrell suffered a concussion in his disqualification victory over Abraham and also left the field. Kessler got battered by Ward and quit, claiming an eye injury.
Only four of the men in the original field ? who theoretically were the best 168-pounders at the time ? are still ranked in Ring?s divisional Top 10. Abraham is ranked 10th, behind guys like Thomas Oosthuizen and George Groves, neither of whom have fought 20 times as a pro.
