The SMW tourney is almost too good to be true..

[BattlingNelson]

Froch deserves the bigest respect. Apart from Taylor, Ward and Dirrell, Froch is the only person who hasn't built up a list of useless title defences. He has jumped straight into the deep end, and has the most to lose.

You couldn't blame him for wanting to give the tournament a miss and rack up a few easy, meaningless title defences. Instead he is jumping in head first.

Kessler's resumée ****'s all over Froch's, Ward's and Direll's.

At least check boxrec before giving such lame posts.

[Motofan]

Boxing should honestly force things like this. It would make the sport HUGE and we would get to see the best fighting the best. Every one of these fighters made a fan out of me. Its the best thing to happen to boxing in years. I think Kessler takes it.

[WelshDevilRob]

Good to see this tournament is happening. Abraham has given up his IBF middleweight belt, Kesslers gotten his promotional wrangles sorted and all the fighters have signed.
Some potentially great match-ups and finally the fans get to see the fights.

Well done to Showtime for getting this set-up.

[MANGLER]

Too bad every division can't do this, or at least unify their damn belts. Nice there's a decent effort bein made to get the best fights out of a stacked division. Just wonderin why Taylor is in there.

[BattlingNelson]

Too bad every division can't do this, or at least unify their damn belts. Nice there's a decent effort bein made to get the best fights out of a stacked division. Just wonderin why Taylor is in there.

It must be because he's the biggest american name in there. He's in the tournament because of drawing power and not because of qualifications. On the other hand Ward, Direll and Taylor just might be the best USA has to offer in that division.

[dstew]

Too bad every division can't do this, or at least unify their damn belts. Nice there's a decent effort bein made to get the best fights out of a stacked division. Just wonderin why Taylor is in there.

Taylor being there is a combination of his name and the fact that the three blemishes on his resume have all come in highly competitive fights to hard-hitting, undefeated fighters, leaving some with that lingering feeling that "if he just fix his conditioning..."

Many fans sympathize with him and root for him, making him a perfect addition as the underdog in this tourney.

Bute should ideally be there but for whatever reason didn't accept or wasn't offered...

Taylor deserves it more than Andrade IMO because Andrade has already been beaten by two top SMWs with both fights being pretty one-sided (with the exception of the final minute against Bute).

Also Taylor deserves it more than Green who has beaten no one in the top 10 and has somehow ruined every shot he's ever had at landing a big fight. Sure, Green would be an exciting addition to the field but Taylor has deserves it more if for nothing else than showing tremendous heart in facing top caliber opponents every time he's stepped into the ring for the last 5 years.

[K-Nan]

I think the opposite. I think he loses to everyone in this tourney. He has been struggling with clubfighters as of late. These guys are coming to win.

The weight of 160 was getting to him, apparently. If what his camp was saying is true, then we should see him looking rejuvenated at 168.

[BMWM3P]

Kessler's resumée ****'s all over Froch's, Ward's and Direll's.

At least check boxrec before giving such lame posts.

All these ******s talking **** about Kessler probably haven't even seen him fight. Let's see what they have to say about his resume when he wins this tournament.

[AntonTheMeh]

if boxing had this sorta **** for it's best divisions every year, it'd be in a pretty healthy place.

[Clegg]

I'm not that bothered by Bute not being in it.

There is talk that he was offered it and wasn't interested. According to Froch's camp, they tried to make a fight with Bute but Bute didn't fancy it. There was also talk about 6 months ago that JT's people had tried to set something up with him without success.

I'm not saying that he isn't good, but he doesn't seem to want it as much as some of the other guys do.

Maybe he'll go after Pavlik, Balzsay, Green or even Dawson, or maybe he'll face lesser opposition, gonna have to wait and see.