The Super Six a Dead Parrot or Merely Stunned?
For once the biggest battering of the week did not befall a fighter but rather a concept. Showtime’s Super Six tournament is still licking its wounds after the third member of its original cast withdrew from the competition due to injury. Flint, Michigan’s Andre Dirrell follows Jermain Taylor and Mikkel Kessler onto the sidelines and out of the running. Citing “neurological problems” as the reason behind his extraction, Dirrell left a vast number of fight writers picking over the supposed ruins of what had been the most innovative idea to hit boxing since Julius Francis rented out advertising space on the soles of his boots.
Amidst the maelstrom of doom-mongering which now surrounds this tournament (which, admittedly, has seen more suspicious exits than Enter the Dragon) I have to ask: what exactly is it we have lost now Dirrell has been eliminated?
Dirrell landed the toughest of draws from the outset and after stinking out an ice rink full of drunks in Nottingham against Carl Froch he managed to put some points on the scoreboard in March with a disqualification win over Armenian banger Arthur Abraham (a rampaging King Abe had slugged Dirrell after he slipped to his knees for the umpteenth time in the tourney). After a brace of terror inducing encounters he then faced the prospect of another against competition favourite Andre Ward, safe in the knowledge that even a miraculous points victory over his old compadre might not be enough to grant him passage to the knockout stages.
Rather than fishing around in the can of worms that this latest kidney punch has cracked open (is his injury legit or is it a bluff?), I’m putting some optimistic spin on an event that many others are requesting be snuffed out. Let’s look at the positives.
Both of the tournament favourites are still alive and kicking, with Ward a rubber stamped semi finalist and Abraham a virtual certainty to follow suit. Carl Froch still has good claims on the elimination rounds with the final spot likely to fall to either Glen Johnson or his third round opponent Allan Green. Wouldn’t that have been the likely scenario anyway had Dirrell stuck around? I fancy it might.
After the opening round experts and bookmakers had fingered Ward and Abraham as likely finalists and the best fighters in the field. That’s still the case. Dirrell’s departure means we may also have avoided a fight between good buddies which could well have stank to high heaven. “The Matrix” has shown a tendency towards pacifism when confronted with rough tactics, so against Ward, perhaps the roughest fighter of the lot, the result could very well have been marred by the Flint man’s negativity.
Last but not least, we’ve also seen the last of Gary Shaw and his jingoistic “U.S.A……U.S.A” shtick which blighted earlier rounds. That’s gotta be a win.
So if Hershman and the Showtime boys can ride out an admittedly sticky November they’ll still be on course to crown a winner with three of the original six contestants fleshing out the final four. That’s not the disaster many folks are making out; this is an elimination tournament after all.
After Taylor’s showing against Abraham it was plainly obvious he could not win the Super Six and, although Kessler and Dirrell managed to bag a couple of points each, who in their right mind figured they would emerge atop the pile? Kessler’s gutsy victory over Froch appeared to be the last stand of a once fine fighter. Dirrell, meanwhile, probably lacked the fortitude to hang a pair of defeats on Ward (which he’d almost certainly have needed to do in order to get his mitts on Showtime’s trophy).
Whilst it’s unfortunate that the script won’t play out as originally intended, I maintain my position behind the tournament finishing its course. Not only would it be hugely unfair on Ward, Froch and Abraham if, as many writers are advocating, Showtime decided to fold, it would be a tough break for the sport.
The notion of a division’s best fighters battling it out in an elimination format is catching on. The cruiserweights are having a dabble, as are a few hardy bantams. If Showtime were to throw the baby out with the bath water, then future battle royals might find themselves without the financial backing to get off the ground. And until the sport can effectively tackle the lack of a single identifiable divisional boss, I’d rather see the better fighters fighting each other in this type of format than returning to the days where elite fighters fought puddings in order to hang onto unbeaten records and meaningless belts.
Showtime can still land that showpiece event next summer and like all the best prototypes, the Super Six can learn from the kinks it’s suffered to help shape the future of tournament boxing. All it needs right now are steady hands to guide it to its conclusion.
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