Super Six 1st fight Predicted Losers: Abraham, Froch & Kessler
Arthur Abraham vs. Jermain Taylor
Arthur Abraham will have the power advantage in this fight over Taylor, but his work rate, lack of hand speed and size will be a huge problem for the Armenian fighter against Taylor. Abraham has been shielded against tough opposition for the most part by his German handlers and has taken the easy round in most of his non-mandatory defenses. The talent pool has been poor anyway in the IBF, where Abraham held his title from 2006 to 2009, fighting opponents like Wayne Elcock, Elvin Ayala, and Mahir Oral.
The lack of quality opposition on Abrahamגs resume will hurt him when he faces Taylor on October 17th, because Taylor will be such a big jump up in terms of talent. This probably wonגt be a close fight because of Abrahamגs poor work rate. He wonגt be able to overwhelm Taylor by fighting hard for 20 seconds of every round like Abraham has done against his over-matched middleweight opponents in the past three years. As such, heגs going to get dominated.
Andre Dirrell vs. Carl Froch
Carl Froch is a case of a fighter with slightly above average talent facing a super talent in Andre Dirrell. The natural outcome of such a clash of talents is that the lesser fighter, in this case Froch, will find himself in a situation in which heגs not prepared for. Nottingham or no Nottingham, Froch is still facing a fighter with much superior skills than his own. This will be Frochגs first loss of his Super Six tourney, and I expect another two additional losses for Froch before heגs finished in the group I part of the tournament.
This, of course, will eliminate Froch the tournament, but thatגs how the old cookie crumbles I guess. Dirrell, a fighter with speed, power and size that most super middleweights would dream of having, is light years ahead of Froch in talent in my view. The gamblers, who clearly need to learn a lot about boxing, are predicting that Froch will beat Dirrell. However, theyגll get their painful lesson about boxing when Froch gets dominated in front of his home crowd in Nottingham in one of the most lopsided fights of the tournament. Froch has next to no chance of winning the fight and one would hope he doesnגt make excuses later, blaming his loss on one thing or another.
Mikkel Kessler vs. Andre Ward
Mikkel Kessler, the World Boxing Association super middleweight champion, doesnגt appear to know how good his opponent Andre Ward is. Heגll learn soon enough on November 21st that Ward is not only good, but heגs perhaps a great fighter. Everything that Kessler can do in the ring, Ward does better. Ward is the faster fighter by far, has power that is equal to Kessler but is much harder to hit than Kessler.
Ward is very elusive and constantly changes angles. Heגs able to punch from a variety of different positions and doesnגt leave many openings. Even when he does get hit, Ward is quick to counter with combinations. Kessler, like Froch, has little chance to win this fight and will likely get dominated entirely by Ward.
ok, screw boxing. That decision was ass, Froch did absolutely NOTHING the entire fight..he landed one good punch and got lucky. Froch freaking blows a boxer too, he's waiting to get exposed. Not even Gus Johnson can keep me watching after that nonsense.
JT is in the hospital with a concussion and short term memory loss, there is a chance he wont be in the six any longer(replacement?). I think he should hang em up. I cant wait to see Froch get exposed (again) and hopefully knocked out. Kessler vs Ward is in the states so Ward shouldn't have much to worry about besides Kessler obviously. Froch's belt will be taken very soon.
The Aluminum Falcon wrote:
Abraham KOs Taylor with 6 seconds left in the 12th
Was Taylor winning up to that point? He is getting real good at getting KOed in last seconds of last rounds...
Also, Froch is a BUM with heart.. I hope he keeps winning though so he can fight someone good and get absolutely destroyed.
Abraham was winning, he controlled from about the 5th round on in my opinion. Froch did try the entire fight and made it a fight, dirrell did do a lot of bullshit ducking, holding, running and crying.He really didnt fight like he wanted the belt, but it was clear dirrell won.
stupid ass brits man. its coo froch isnt nearly as skilled as any of the other combatants in this tournament and that will show eventually. cant wait for ward and kesler. ward will suprise alotta heads.
According to ESPN.com's Dan Rafael, the December 5 middleweight championship fight between Kelly Pavlik and Paul Williams is off for the second time.
The staph infection in a finger on the left hand of middleweight champion Kelly Pavlik still has not healed, so his Dec. 5 title defense against Paul Williams was called off again on Wednesday.
"It's the same finger giving him problems. They told me he can't make a fist," Top Rank promoter Bob Arum said. "It's getting better and better but it's going a little slow. So, we'll see."
It's the second time the bout -- the centerpiece of HBO's boxing schedule for the end of the year -- has been called off because of the infection.
"This morning we were advised that Kelly Pavlik's recovery of his left hand has not progressed as projected by Dr. Peter Evans at the Cleveland Clinic," Top Rank president Todd duBoef said. "As a result of this Kelly is unable to close his left hand, which prohibits from him from being prepared for a Dec. 5 middleweight championship defense against Paul Williams.
"We at Top Rank are disappointed by this unexpected development in his recovery. Once Pavlik is cleared medically by Dr. Evans we will pursue all avenues with regards to a future bout. We appreciate the understanding of Paul Williams, [his promoter] Goossen Tutor, HBO and Caesars Atlantic City with regards to this unforeseen occurrence."
This is a huge blow to the HBO schedule, and while hindsight is always 20/20 and all that, it really has to make you mad that HBO essentially abandoned a Shane Mosley-Joshua Clottey fight for December in large part due to the rescheduling of this bout.
And whether it's fair or not, Kelly Pavlik's reputation takes yet another hit of its own. Pulling out twice with the same injury either means he's not taking care of it properly -- which even Bob Arum said when they rescheduled from October 3 -- or everyone jumped the gun putting the fight on the December 5 date.
No word yet on whether or not the Joshua Clottey-Carlos Quintana co-feature is also off, but I have my doubts Top Rank and Lou DiBella will really want to try to sell that as the main event of a show in Atlantic City. It would be a perfectly strong Boxing After Dark main event, to be fair, and I actually hope it stays on. If it's called off, Clottey is screwed by not getting to fight Shane Mosley in December, and Quintana is screwed, because he pulled out of an October 24 card in Puerto Rico for this fight.
