By Jake Donovan
While Andre Ward was forced to give up an alphabet title, not all is lost in the super middleweight division.
When the rematch between Mikkel Kessler and Carl Froch was first announced, it was followed by the news that the winner would only hold the IBF title long enough to pose for pictures. The belt was to have been vacated immediately thereafter, in conjunction with a long overdue mandatory.
That dilemma went away once the mandatory challenger – Adonis Stevenson – elected to move up to challenge for the light heavyweight crown. The winner of this weekend’s rematch between Kessler and Froch will walk out of the ring and remain a unified champion. No longer awaiting the winner will be a mandatory obligation, at least not from the IBF.
“Now that Stevenson is fighting (lineal light heavyweight king Chad) Dawson, he is no longer the mandatory for the winner of Froch vs. Kessler,” Lindsay Tucker, IBF Championships Chairman, confirmed in an e-mail reply.
Stevenson (20-1, 17KO) earned the mandatory ranking with a 12th round stoppage win over Donovan George in their thriller last October. His decision to move up in weight and challenge Dawson on June 8 comes at the price of forfeiting his mandatory super middleweight title shot previously owed.
The Haiti-born. Canada-based southpaw put a potential title shot at risk when he agreed to pursue an opportunity to avenge the lone loss of his career. He succeeded, and in dominant fashion, annihilating Darnell Boone in six rounds on March 23 in Canada, nearly three years after suffering a shocking 2nd round knockout loss to the journeyman in Maryland.
Froch (30-2, 22KO) earned the IBF title with an emphatic 5th round knockout of previously unbeaten Lucian Bute last May. The rematch with Kessler takes place exactly 52 weeks from that night, a career-defining win for Froch at the moment.
Kessler (46-2, 35KO) is the unofficial mandatory to Ward, for those who enjoy trying to decipher the madness in crowning champions within the World Boxing Association (WBA). Given Ward’s decision to rid himself of anything connected to the WBC, the working theory is that the unbeaten super middleweight king is looking at this weekend’s rematch in England as a candidate for his ring return, tentatively slated for September.
Ward owns wins over both fighters, serving as bookends to his historic run in the Super Six World Boxing Classic super middleweight tournament.
The Oakland native dominated Kessler in their Nov. ’11 clash, winning nearly every round in a technical decision win over the tournament’s original odds-on favorite. The round robin session finally came to an end more than two years later when Ward outpointed Froch in Atlantic City to gain recognition as the tournament champion, lineal super middleweight champ and unified titlist.
At the time of the win, Ward was not presented with a mandatory obligation. However, he has only fought once since then – an emphatic 10th round knockout of Dawson, who dropped down in weight for their fight last September. Since then has come a WBC eliminator, in which Sakio Bika – who dropped a wide points loss to Ward in Nov. ’10 – won a decision over previously unbeaten Nikola Sjevloka this past February.
Froch has won twice since the loss to Ward, scoring knockout victories over Bute and Yusaf Mack. Kessler enters the fight having won four straight, the most recent coming last December when he flattened Brian Magee in three rounds.
The winner of this weekend’s bout will be in a unique position to challenge Ward, since neither presently carries a pending mandatory title defense.
Jake Donovan is the Managing Editor of Boxingscene.com, as well as a member of Transnational Boxing Ratings Board, Yahoo Boxing Ratings Panel and the Boxing Writers Association of America. Twitter: @JakeNDaBox
