I can see him winning it (but would pick Ward), but losing a fight along the way... I think this is a format that suits Froch best. On his day, I think he has enough will, power and stamina to beat the best, but his sloppy style means he'll eventually lose some fights to people he really shouldn't, let alone quality fighters.
Taylor also represents a serious a lock of ring intelligence and ability to focus. He has ring ADD. His skills were good enough to beat Pavlik and Froch, but the mental and physical toughness wasn't. Abraham hits harder than Pavlik and Froch, is tough as nails mentally and physically and he only needs two or three good moments to turn the fight around.
I think the two Andres are both too talented for neither of them to be represented in the finals. That's about as far as I'm willing to go at this point.
The only way Kessler doesn't win this is a shock KO. So that pretty much rules out anyone who doesn't have one punch KO power, and as far as I can ascertain there is only one man in this tournament who has that sort of one punch power and he's from the middleweight division but isn't named Jermaine, conversely I don't see him beating all his prior opponents.
I would like to see Andre Ward win the tournament and I think he has a good chance... I think Arthur Abraham will do it though
The amazing thing is I wouldn not be shocked if any of these guys one it!!! Kessler - Will be favourite and looks the best of the lot..... Abraham - Is an iron chinned banger, always has a chance..... Froch - Has the best win of all the competitors at this weight, and has real heart..... Dirrel - looks great but hasn't really had a test, hard to write off because of this..... Ward - Strong amatuer and coming off a career best victory over Miranda Taylor - I suspect a lot of people will fancy him as an outsider. The most experiened, 2 wins over Hops, can see this as a 2nd chance, and dare I say it is the most talented... I'm so excited!!! Any of you guys think that any of these could struggle to make weight in 18 months time?? Kessler and Froch are very big SMW's!!!
You're right about Taylor's ring savvy. And you're right about him having the skills to beat Froch. Clealry JT does not have the skills to beat Pavlik. He already lost a clear UD at SMW, and ring savvy had nothing to do with that. It was arguably JT's best performance in years. As for Abraham, you're right there too. He has to get lucky to beat JT. Sauerland's habit of cherry picking the softest possible opponents for Abraham may very well backfire, and he put Arthur in a lose/lose situation. If Arthur wins, he beat a guy most people think is done because he lost 3 of his last 4. If Arthur loses, he lost to a guy who already lost to Pavlik and Froch. It's a lose-lose for AA.