Showtime Supermiddleweight Tournament

FreshPrince · 07-04-2009, 09:01 AM

Abraham, Froch, Taylor, Kessler in a Showtime Shocker - Boxing News

I can't copy and paste. Showtime is having a round robbin supermiddleweight tournament. Competing in it are Carl Froch, Jermain Taylor, ARTHUR ABRAHAM (done at middleweight), Andre Ward, Andre Dirrell, and Mikkel Kessler.

If everything goes as expected the fights will look like:

Arthur Abraham vs Jermain Taylor in Germany in October.
Carl Froch vs Andre Dirrell in October in the UK.
Mikkel Kessler vs Andre Ward in November
Arthur Abraham vs Andre Dirrell in America in January 2010
Mikkel Kessler vs Carl Froch in Europe in March 2010
Andre Ward vs Jermain Taylor in America in April/May 2010
Andre Ward vs Andre Dirrell in America in September 2010
Arthur Abraham vs Carl Froch in November 2010
Jermain Taylor vs Mikkel Kessler in November 2010

After those bouts take place points will be tallied and there will be semi finals and a final tournament bout.

Wow! Showtime is stepping up bigtime if all of this goes through. If you don't have it, you should probably get it. I don't see HBO beating that schedule this fall or next year. The tournament looks like it will run through 2011.

FreshPrince · 07-04-2009, 09:17 AM

I wish more weight classes did this. Can you imagine a 6 man welterweight tournament? Fuck, network television would pick that up.

I pity what the late starting Abraham is going to do the poor stamina of Jermain Taylor.

This is a worldwide event. Who would broadcast in the UK? Sky? ARD would most likely show the fights in Germany. I have no idea about Denmark.

MC Paul Barman · 07-04-2009, 09:56 AM

Is this for real?
This is FUCKING nuts if this does happen.

DannyBoy1985 · 07-04-2009, 10:17 AM

Quote:

By Rick Reeno

A few weeks back, I reported that Showtime was very interested in putting together a super middleweight tournament with the biggest names at the weight. Over the last few days, BoxingScene.com has spoken with numbers high-level sources who are close to the situation and it appears that Showtime is going to move forward with the super middleweight tournament.

The negotiations for this tournament have been very secretive and some of the information I was able to dig up will make Ken Hershman [Senior Vice President and General Manager, Sports & Event Programming at Showtime] wonder if I tapped his phone line.

From what I was able to find out, Showtime plans to enter into multi-fight agreements with undefeated IBF middleweight champion Arthur Abraham, WBA super middleweight champion Mikkel Kessler, former undisputed middleweight champion Jermain Taylor, undefeated contender Andre Ward, undefeated contender Andre Dirrell and undefeated WBC super middleweight champion Carl Froch.

This will NOT be an elimination style tournament.

Once all of the contracts have been signed and every fighter is officially on board, Showtime plans to match them in a round robin tournament with some form of a point system.

If everything goes as expected, the following fights are being discussed for this tournament.

Arthur Abraham vs. Jermain Taylor in October in Germany
Carl Froch vs. Andre Dirrell in October in the UK.
Mikkel Kessler vs. Andre Ward in November.
Arthur Abraham vs. Andre Dirrell in America in January 2010
Mikkel Kessler vs. Carl Froch in Europe in March 2010
Andre Ward vs. Jermain Taylor in America in April/May 2010
Andre Dirrell vs. Andre Ward in America in September 2010
Arthur Abraham vs. Carl Froch in November 2010, with Mikkel Kessler vs. Jermain Taylor taking place around the same time.

After those bouts takes place and the points are tallied up, there will be semi-finals and a final tournament bout.

As far as Kessler’s legal dispute with Mogens Palle, I’ve heard that some form of an agreement was reached with Palle to allow Kessler to participate. I’ve been told that Palle will not be part of the promotion, but if everything comes together as expected - Dan Goossen, Gary Shaw, Lou DiBella, Sauerland Event and Mick Hennessey will be involved.

Some other points of interest.

1. Abraham would vacate his title and move up to 168.
2. Kelly Pavlik would be left without any significant opponents at 160 or 168. The only options I would see for him is the winner of Lucian Bute vs. Librado Andrade or Paul Williams.
3. You would have to applaud the promoters involved if everything is able to get worked out. The tournament would be a global event with some of the biggest names in America, Germany, UK and Denmark.

There you go FreshPrince. If you wanna copy & paste an article from BoxingScene.com, click on the Printable Version link under the article title, and copy it from there to paste it here or where ever.

Anyways, this sounds good and very interesting. If everything gets worked out, ill definitely be looking forward to it.