I know there have been many other threads like this where people have said that they tried to make the tournament USA vs Europe, but how did the 1st round actually get drawn? America hasnt had many top SMWs of late, so it does look like the 1st round was planned to give America a boost (if all there fighters had won) in the division, by having two of there undefeated fighters facing world champs in the 1st round. The top names around the SMWs of the last 10 years tend to have come from europe ie Calzaghe, Ottke, Beyer, Woodhall, Reid, Kessler, to name some. Between european SMWs they have beaten from the USA Brewer, Mitchell, Lacy, Sheika, Manfredo and other top men from other countries in Mundine, Green, Bika and Lucas. So how was the 1st round drawn? and by whom? Regardless of how it turns out its a great tourament and all the best to the eventual champ.
It was drawn so that it was US v Europe in all 3 matches, clearly. It's not the tournament organisers fault that Taylor and Dirrell had tough match ups. Regardless, Ward beat Kessler anyway. Taylor did reasonably well against Abraham. And Dirrell edged Froch but lost out on the cards.
