Comments Thread For: Finish Line Within Reach For Showtime Tournaments

[JakeNDaBox]

By Jake Donovan - At last, there is light at the end of the tunnel.

Showtime cleared a major hurdle last month after the completion of Andre Ward’s dominant Super Six semifinal win over Arthur Abraham. Sure there were pre-fight talks of Abraham’s camps whining about officials, but the two combatants showed up as scheduled when all was said and done, paving the way for an eventual finale later this year.

With that win out of the way, Ward now awaits the winner of this weekend’s showdown between Carl Froch and Glen Johnson, which airs live on Showtime from the Adrian Phillip Ballroom at the Boardwalk Hall in Atlantic City. [Click Here To Read More]

[mushahadeen]

great idea, terrible execution.

[budhram]

Kudos to the Showtime brass for getting this show to this point, and keeping it interesting. We have seem some very compelling matches. We have seen paper champion (Abraham) exposed and future star (SOG Ward) born. We were given insights into how difficult it is to makes matches with the diva-like characters involved in boxing. That is why these matches were even more compelling. Also, closure for the bantamweight championship is in sight. Can't wait for Showtime to announce the next tourney. And...oh yeah..we understand now what a great achievement it is when anyone can get these fighting princess to fight, much less finish a tournament.

[JakeNDaBox]

Originally Posted by mushahadeen

great idea, terrible execution.

The biggest hurdle was the politics. I mean, Froch and Abraham seemingly *****ed about something before every single fight... but still showed up. But the promoters and managers were the real killers here, because none of them lived up to their word.

I just never felt like any of them fully understood what it took to make this work the way it should, and that especially on this side of the Atlantic, there was little to no actual promoting, just the belief that the tournament would sell itself.

I guess in that sense, Showtime can be held accountable. Fool me once... and all that good stuff. But what nobody can ever claim is that Showtime hasn't done everything in its power to make it work.

[Walt Liquor]

Originally Posted by JakeNDaBox

The biggest hurdle was the politics. I mean, Froch and Abraham seemingly *****ed about something before every single fight... but still showed up. But the promoters and managers were the real killers here, because none of them lived up to their word.

I just never felt like any of them fully understood what it took to make this work the way it should, and that especially on this side of the Atlantic, there was little to no actual promoting, just the belief that the tournament would sell itself.

I guess in that sense, Showtime can be held accountable. Fool me once... and all that good stuff. But what nobody can ever claim is that Showtime hasn't done everything in its power to make it work.

biggest problem with the tourney...

now I don't claim to know about the promoting for the european bouts but for a guy like Gary Shaw, and to a lesser extent DiBella cuz he ended up a partial promoter of Johnson, they had to be pumped that it seemed like there was a silent agreement not to spend any of any of the promoters money.

I'm not sure what Goosen does out there, but I don't believe he's a very good promoter based on his track record with some other guys out there- Paul Williams cough cough....

TV contract negotiators, and Shaw's the worst of all of um.

[SlimTim]

As dramatic as it makes it sound, Glen Johnson needed only a win, not necessarily a knockout to advance to the semi finals of the tournament. With Dirrel dropping out, that left only Ward, Froch, AA and Green who had zero points or Johnson. Therefore the winner of their fight would automatically be the fourth man in the semi finals