You have probably already read about a 168 tournament that is being put together by Showtime, featuring the top six fighters at SM. Apparently it will be officially announced in a few days. The players are: Kessler, Ward, Dirrell, Froch, Abraham and Taylor. It starts off as a round robin, the bottom two are dropped then it's a final four series. Some scepticism about whether it can be maintained through 2009 to 2011 (what happens if a fighter is ko'd in his first fight etc) but word is that ALL fighters and their teams are fully committed to it. Showtime even have replacement fighters on stand by should a fighter withdraw through injury etc. This is the roster of fights: 1- Taylor-Abraham 2- Kessler-Ward 3- Dirrell - Froch 4- Abraham- Dirrell 5- Kessler-Froch 6- Ward-Taylor 7- Dirrell- Ward 8- Abraham- Froch 9- Kessler-Taylor Sounds too good to be true :happy
It does sound to good to be true. What the **** happened to the lightweight tournament that had Kats and Valero?
The mail is that it's definately on and not some pie in the sky stuff. It's a goer! It gets announced at MSG early next week. I've got some doubts about whether they can carry soemthing like this over that amount of time. But, all parties are right behind it and have signed binding contracts which commit them for the entirety of the tournament.
This sounds amazing. Has anything like this (a round robin tournament) ever been done before??? I know there was talk of a lightweight tourney proposed involving Kats, but that never eventuated. It sounds too good to be true.
Yeah, Garry Shaw did something similar a year or two ago with mixed results and of course they had the heavyweight tournament in the mid to late 80's to unify the title
It will be great if they can get it to work from start to finish. A loss doesn't mean the end for a fighter as he may get a chance for redemption in a rematch later in the tournament. And the line up, geez. Take ya pick. Froch v Abraham would be bombs away. Anyone game to pick a winner this far out?
I agree with you. If i had to make a pick to win the tournament i would say Kessler. Surely Carl Froch will be ktfo at some stage during his 3 bouts with his skill level.
i dont know about that.his chin seems pretty sturdy i just dont think his skill level is up to theirs and kesslers stamina isnt **** like taylors so he will win a UD over froch imo.
Never seen Dirrell or Andre before. Anyone tell me what they're like? But yeah, from what I've seen, I'd pick Kessler to win it.
Good to see a number of undefeated fighters risking their '0' in their records, Abraham, Ward and Dirrell. This is what we wanna see in boxing, the best in the division taking on the best on a regular basis.