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By Scott Gilfoid: The Super Six tournament starts on October 17th, with the talented Andre Dirrell facing WBC super middleweight champion Carl Froch in Nottingham, and former WBC/WBO middleweight champion Jermain Taylor facing Arthur Abraham, in Berlin, Germany. The other Super Six fight between WBA super middleweight champion Mikkel Kessler fighting undefeated American Andre Ward, in Oakland, California.
Of these great fighters, someone has got to lose and my immediate predictions are that Froch, Abraham and Kessler will all be tasting defeat in their first fights. I suspect that Kessler and Abraham will make it somewhat close because of their talent, but I expect them to lose by at least an eight rounds to four margin. Froch, however, will be way over his head in his fight with Dirrell and will either lose a lopsided decision by a 11-1 or 12-0 score or Froch will be knocked out at the midpoint of the fight by Dirrell.
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 El****, Elvin Ayala, and Mahir Oral.
The lack of quality opposition on Abraham’s 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 won’t be a close fight because of Abraham’s poor work rate. He won’t 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, he’s 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 he’s not prepared for. Nottingham or no Nottingham, Froch is still facing a fighter with much superior skills than his own. This will be Froch’s first loss of his Super Six tourney, and I expect another two additional losses for Froch before he’s finished in the group I part of the tournament.
This, of course, will eliminate Froch the tournament, but that’s 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, they’ll 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 doesn’t 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, doesn’t appear to know how good his opponent Andre Ward is. He’ll learn soon enough on November 21st that Ward is not only good, but he’s 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. He’s able to punch from a variety of different positions and doesn’t 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.
Of these great fighters, someone has got to lose and my immediate predictions are that Froch, Abraham and Kessler will all be tasting defeat in their first fights. I suspect that Kessler and Abraham will make it somewhat close because of their talent, but I expect them to lose by at least an eight rounds to four margin. Froch, however, will be way over his head in his fight with Dirrell and will either lose a lopsided decision by a 11-1 or 12-0 score or Froch will be knocked out at the midpoint of the fight by Dirrell.
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 El****, Elvin Ayala, and Mahir Oral.
The lack of quality opposition on Abraham’s 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 won’t be a close fight because of Abraham’s poor work rate. He won’t 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, he’s 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 he’s not prepared for. Nottingham or no Nottingham, Froch is still facing a fighter with much superior skills than his own. This will be Froch’s first loss of his Super Six tourney, and I expect another two additional losses for Froch before he’s finished in the group I part of the tournament.
This, of course, will eliminate Froch the tournament, but that’s 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, they’ll 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 doesn’t 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, doesn’t appear to know how good his opponent Andre Ward is. He’ll learn soon enough on November 21st that Ward is not only good, but he’s 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. He’s able to punch from a variety of different positions and doesn’t 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.
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