Can Carl Froch Escape Home Town Bias Pervading The Super Six?
It’s Monday. Sergio Martinez is the new middleweight champion of the world, Edwin Valero’s squalid demise has hijacked the Argentinean’s parade, yet I want to talk about Carl Froch?
Firstly, I’ve been unable to view the Pavlik-Martinez scrap as yet (other than brief highlights), so am unable to offer you anything in the way of a review. The fact that a middleweight championship fight (as recognised by Ring mag) was passed over by Sky TV in the UK, despite the fact they aired the Andre Berto-Carlos Quintana bout last week, is grating. If I can pick up a link later in the week I’ll return to it in some capacity, yet for now, HBO’s tech guys are doing an outstanding job of keeping the bout for subscribers’ eyes only (good for them but nevertheless, rubbish for me).
Valero? I’m afraid I haven’t much more to add to what has already been written on events in Venezuela, other than the fact that a tragic ending to his story was long foreseen. I had envisioned that this wild man of the ring would one day gain boxing infamy, yet as details continue to emerge from South America, one could never have imagined the horrors which are reported to have unfolded.
This weekend, boxing will endeavour to return to making headlines on sporting grounds as the next bout in Showtime’s Super Six tournament rolls out. I’ll have a full preview of the fight for you later in the week, however, I’d just like to touch upon one aspect of the competition witnessed thus far, which has me slightly perturbed.
We’re four fights into this twelve bout tourney and on each occasion to date, the ‘home’ fighter has taken the spoils. It began in Berlin on October 17th as Arthur Abraham kayoed America’s Jermain Taylor, closely followed by Carl Froch decisioning Andre Dirrell in Nottingham later that evening.
Both Americans, boxing away from home, were deducted points by the third man during the contests, Taylor for hitting low and Dirrell for holding and wrestling. Neither infraction cost the perpetrator the fight, yet it undoubtably changed their approach going forward (Taylor had to be careful when firing to Arthur’s gut, whilst Dirrell was forced to open up).
In the third battle, Andre Ward, boxing in front of a partisan Oakland crowd, opened up the face of Mikkel Kessler with his head, cuts which eventually brought the bout to a halt and returned a richly deserved (technical decision) win for Ward. Despite the fact his man was thoroughly outclassed, Kessler’s promoter Wilfried Sauerland was left feeling aggrieved at what he felt was biased refereeing from Jack Reiss, a man whose appointment he’d protested about before the fight.
Tournament regulations stipulate that officials should be neutral, yet Reiss was a Californian officiating at home, in a bout containing a fellow Californian to boot. Sauerland would similarly protest before the Arthur Abraham-Andre Dirrell encounter, when a decision was made to use local officials in Detroit (one later overturned after the WBC stepped in to sanction the bout as a title eliminator).
Abraham, trailing badly on the cards, floored Dirrell with a right hand in the tenth, only for the much maligned ref, Laurence Cole to blow the call completely. It was disconcerting to see Dirrell’s promoter Gary Shaw barracking and conversing with Cole mid-fight, complaining over what he felt was a knockdown for his man in round seven. As football fans know only too well, a rebuke from an enraged manager over a fluffed decision can sometimes lead to the referee ‘evening things up’. Is this what happened here?
When Carl Froch enters the arena in Herning on Saturday, in front of a baying horde of Vikings, can he hope for a fair shake from the officials should the bout hinge on their input? Some would argue that he himself benefited in the Dirrell fight (Froch repeatedly hit Dirrell behind his head throughout) and any hardship coming his way will be karma’s sweet revenge. If that’s how things pan out, then why would any fighter agree to box as the ‘away’ man for future bouts?
The Super Six, a wonderful concept, is in danger of being blighted by what has been seen in some quarters as ‘home cooking’. Whatever happens on Saturday, once the smoke has cleared, I only hope we’re talking about the boxers and not the people assigned to preside over events. Boxing needs a show of good sportsmanship more than ever right now.
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