If the Six Man tournament in the Super Middleweight Division is not enough to shake it up, how about a rematch, and we all wanted one, because the first was so controversial, between undefeated IBF champ Lucian Bute and Librado Andrade. They showed what happened in their first fight. Max Kellerman said Bute got knocked out twice and won the fight, and it was the worst kind of hometown refereeing he has ever seen. It’s true, but besides Emanuel Augustus getting robbed and jobbed in Burton’s hometown on ESPN, this fight was for a title on a pay network. They had a clock and showed that instead of a ten count Bute got a 21 count. Kellerman also said that Andrade should be the champion. So there is a compelling match up between the “other” super middleweight champion. In the tournament, now, we have undefeated Andre Ward with the WBA title, and undefeated Carl Froch with the WBC title. Well here was undefeated IBF champ Bute trying to state his claim that he is the best.

It bothered me that it was still taking place in Bute’s hometown. Look at Mikkel Kessler, the favorite coming into the tournament. He fought his whole career in his hometown and was a 42-1 champion. But when he came to America against Andre Ward, he got beat up bad, and lost. Also, Froch, in his hometown, got a decision over Andre Dirrell. I don’t agree with that, and neither does anyone else. So home field advantage and referees are important.

Coming in, Bute stated that he was obsessed with fighting Andrade again. Andrade spoke of how he likes to get hit and how it gives him more energy. Well, in the first two rounds, Bute squeaked by, but looked a bit hesitant, maybe nervous, which is not good. Andrade was calm, and stalked him, like usual, came forward, got hit, and kept coming. Kellerman’s description of him earlier was a heavy bag that punched back. He never goes away. In the third, Bute hit Andrade with a beautiful straight left that would stagger most, Andrade didn’t blink. Even though Bute probably won the first three rounds, going into the fourth, we still didn’t know what would happen, until out of clinch, Andrade gets knocked down. The reason… he didn’t see the punch.

It wasn’t even a hard punch, it was one Andrade walked straight into, and didn’t see, and as Frans Botha once said, “I didn’t see it coming, it’s like getting hit by Mike Tyson” – on the canvas, Andrade smiled, winked at the camera, and got back up, and started stalking again. Not too much later, and this had nothing to do with the first knockdown, Bute hit Andrade with a perfect body shot. It was said Bute got 21 seconds, well, Andrade wouldn’t get up until around 25 seconds later, yes, he was counted out. He tried to get up, but could not, he got hit with a body shot that paralyzed him, and a tough guy like him would not stay down, he just couldn’t help it. It was a great victory, and payback, for Bute, who is the number one Super middleweight right now, ironically, above the entire Super Six tournament. That could change, definitely. We are awaiting Stage 2 of the Super Middleweight Tournament, which looks like this…

Abraham – Dirrell
Kessler – Froch (WBC Title)
Ward – Taylor (WBA Title)

The top three fighter’s in the division look like this…
1. Bute 25-0 (20) IBF Champ
2. Ward 21-0 (13) WBA Champ
3. Froch 26-0 (21) WBC Champ

Abraham is undefeated, also, fighting Dirrell, who got ripped off and has one loss because of it. That’s the fight I’m looking forward to most. I think Ward beats Taylor. And Kessler should beat Froch, but the way Kessler got beat up by Ward, and the fact that Froch is undefeated with a title makes me wonder.

But, as I said, with these six, adding Bute, plus the talent of Allan Green and Sakio Bika, and Robert Steiglitz who is fighting Edison Miranda soon, we’ll have to wait until this tournament is over to see what the division looks like, and when it’s over, what happens next.

Robert Earle Stanton is a freelance writer, short fiction author and novelist.

Check out the book The Fearless Harry Greb: Biography of a Tragic Hero of Boxing by clicking here.

See the documentary Tyson on DVD by clicking here.

To purchase the boxing video game Fight Night: Round 4, click here.

Sometimes, on your terms, in the sport of boxing, there’s no better sound than, “And New!…” – and that’s what we heard Saturday Night, as the biggest fight in phase one in the Super Middleweight Six Man Tournament was completed. It was said that Andre Ward, Olympic gold medalist, who didn’t get the exposure and recognition over the past few years like an Oscar De la Hoya did, got the worst pick, when he was only 19 and O having to face then 41-1 two time WBA titlist Mikkel Kessler.

Before the tournament started, they decided to put Ward and Kessler on the same show, against two D level opponents, to get the audience warmed up. Even though Kessler dominated his foe, I saw something in the first fight, Ward’s, and that’s why I picked him, unlike most, to beat Kessler Saturday Night. I saw his speed and skill and on display, even against a no-hoper, it was brilliant, and I thought the speed will be the killer. It was. But so was some other stuff.

Coming into the fight, Kessler, whose only loss was to Joe Calzaghe, a decision that was forgivable, with his half tattooed body got booed. Taylor had to fight in Abraham’s backyard, and Dirrell got ripped off in Froch’s hometown so now we’d see a fight in an American’s hometown, in Oakland, CA. The cheers and boos were expected, but when the entered the ring, the attention was more focused on the fight than cheering on an opponent, because this wasn’t a normal fight, it wasn’t only a tournament fight, it was a championship fight, Ward, at 20-0, gold medalist’s first shot at a world title.

In the first round it looked even, both men feeling each other out. The second round I got to see why Kessler was so good, cutting off the ring brilliantly, but unable to put the pressure on Ward as he did other opponents, because Ward could move and not only that, score, as he did in the third, a straight right hand after a clinch hurt and shook up Kessler, and Kessler started holding on. And that’s when I knew… Ward has this. He would go on to throw the left right combo, but the speed in which he did it was the factor. Then you got to see it in the following rounds, as Ward outfoxed him, it showed on Kessler’s face, who was bleeding from his nose and mouth, and then from a punch, got a very deep gash over his left eye. After every round blood was flowing down his face – no one has ever seen Kessler like that. Then I thought Ward may have been talking to another former Olympian, Evander Holyfield, as he took a page from his book, and blatantly led with his head, into the head of Kessler, which opened a deep gash over his other eye, which would become the factor in the fight. It was ruled a head butt, but accidental, before round nine, I thought, alright, here we go, let’s see who takes off, and it was Ward. Kessler’s corner, which we heard through a translator told him, “You gotta knock him out.” That voice then would go in the following round to, “Do you want us to stop it?” Kessler fought on, deep gashes over both eyes, blood out of the nose and mouth, getting battered by Ward, and it was just a matter of time – in the 11th round, due to his corner man who didn’t want to see his fighter battered any more, he urged on the verdict of the referee, to stop the bout due to the cut – the cut caused by the head but.

Since it was ruled “accidental” it goes to the scorecards, and the scores were read, 98-92 twice, and 97-93 once, press row having it 98-92, “for the winner, and new WBA Super Middleweight Champion, Andre “S.O.G.” Ward. Joe Calzaghe, who retired at 46-0 and went out on top beating Hopkins and Jones didn’t beat Kessler as bad as young Ward did. Ward gets two points for the win, because it was a Technical Decision. If the cut was caused by a punch, he would have won by a Technical Knockout and got three points. But makes no mistake, there’s an undefeated champion here. “This is my time so let me have this moment. With Jesus Christ in your life anything is possible,” said the new champion, who started at 5-2 odds to win the tournament, while Kessler was favored to win. Kessler, like a bitter beaten man said it was all due to head butts by Ward, which was not the case. There were head butts, one may been intentional, but without them, Ward still beat him. Also, Kessler held a lot during the fight, which showed off Ward even better, by him fighting inside during those moments. Ward dictated the entire fight, and imposed his will on Kessler. Kessler got beat fair and square, you can’t lose the whole fight, having judges having you down by six points, because of a head butt, and Kessler went on about “the hometown referee” – I have seen some bad refs and some hometown refereeing, but even if the ref called the “only” head butt that was in question a foul, and took a point off of Ward, he would have still won. So stand up and say, “This kid beat me,” because Kessler was never in the fight.

This is a big moment. It’s a tournament win, which is big, but it’s also a gold medalist, undefeated, 21-0, winning his first title. Kessler falls to 42-2. So Phase One is over. And this is how it looks, with the point system.
Abraham – 3
Ward – 2
Froch – 2
Dirrell – 0
Kessler – 0
Taylor – 0

The top three with the points are undefeated. And this is what stage two looks like…
Abraham, 31-0 – Dirrell, 18-1

Froch, 26-0 – Kessler, 42-2, WBC Title

Ward, 21-0 – Taylor, 28-4-1 WBA Title

If you look at these matches, it’s kind of ridiculous to know that Kessler just lost his title, and now he gets a title shot for that. He will be fighting Froch for the WBC title. And, Jermain Taylor, who got knocked out, is gonna have a chance for the WBA title, and no one should look ahead even though I do. I see Ward winning everything. But, don’t say Ward has it easy cause he’s fighting a guy who got knocked out in his last two fights, he’s a professional that has been in the ring with Bernard Hopkins, Winky Wright, Kassim Ouma, Corey Spinks, William Joppy – all champions at a time. In the end, I don’t think we should “thinking” titles too much. These two titles could get passed around a lot in this tournament, so think more of it in points, that’s what matters, though the winner will have two belts, and get this, next Saturday Night, November 28th, the “other” Super Middleweight Champion, undefeated IBF Champ Lucian Bute, 24-0, will have a rematch with Librado Andrade, 28-2, who had Bute down in the last round of their first fight, and some people think Andrade got ripped off. So this 168 pound Super Middlweight division is really getting shook up. If we could only get Allan Green to fight Sakia Bika…

Robert Earle Stanton is a freelance writer, short fiction author and novelist.

Check out the book The Fearless Harry Greb: Biography of a Tragic Hero of Boxing by clicking here.

See the documentary Tyson on DVD by clicking here.

To purchase the boxing video game Fight Night: Round 4, click here.

The two Andres’ – Ward and Dirrell. Not only do they have the same name, but in the same tournament, and the same Olympic team. And, they’re friends. Ironically enough, the two were so close, and lived together when they were in the Olympics, that Dirrell fought at Light Heavyweight at that time, so he wouldn’t have to face his friend. In Stage 3 of the Super Six Super Middleweight Tournament, they will fight. Dirrell took home a bronze for his efforts, Ward, a gold. But Dirrell took off faster, or at least more noticeably, and I predicted him to beat undefeated Froch in the first round, and after the fight I was sure he did, but due to some, as only I can speculate, home-town goggles the judges were wearing, somehow they thought Froch won the fight. So Dirrell is down one while Froch got two points.

Well, coming up, Andre is gonna be on the biggest stage so far in the tournament. This is the biggest match in the tournament. He will be fighting 42-1 Mikkel Kessler, whose only loss was a decision to Joe Calzaghe, and he’s thought of as the best in this tournament, which, heck, I said Dirrell would beat him, but I must also tell you I picked Jermain Taylor to upset Arthur Abraham. You wanna laugh at me?, well, Bert Sugar picked Michael Spinks to beat Mike Tyson. We all make mistakes. Yet, I don’t think I’m making one when I say 20-0 Andre Ward will not only beat, but teach Kessler a lesson with speed and combination punching, and for Ward, at least, it’s not in Germany.

One last thing on this little blurb about the fight I’d like to rant on. After Jermain Taylor got KO’d by Abraham in the 12th, and Taylor suffered a concussion, people are calling (again) for his head – this time, to step out of the tourney. They want a replacement. I’m not against it for one reason. It’s not because he lost and I don’t buy into a lot of what is said about Taylor. I just worry for Taylor’s health. But let me say, in the beginning of the tournament, everyone is even, I don’t care about anything prior, they’re all equal in the tournament, and really, Taylor is in the same boat as Dirrell – zero points in the first stage, even though the outcomes are so different. That’s why I kinda think there should be a difference between losing by decision and by knockout, but hey, I don’t make the rules, and for the most part, I usually don’t abide by them either, it’s just that the sanctioning bodies didn’t get in touch with me for my thoughts on how it was set up… hmmm. Okay… about Taylor. He can say something not many people can say… he beat Bernard Hopkins two times in a row. Then he fought Winky Wright to a draw, and he was also became Kronk-esque, being trained by Emmanuel Stewart. He beat Spinks, Ouma, and then defended against puncher Kelly Pavlik.

Taylor knocked down Pavlik in the early rounds, Pavlik would come back and KO Taylor. The rematch Taylor lost by Decision. He then beat former friend Jeff Lacy. He then fought, ironically, a guy in the Super Six Tournament, Froch. Taylor knocked down Froch early, and then Froch KO’d him in the last round. Huh… so now people were saying Taylor runs out of gas and can’t finish (no sexual innuendo, nope, not at all, you sickos) So going into the Super Six Tourney, Taylor was a 10-1 underdog to win it all, while the biggest odds other than that were 5-2. And Taylor fought good against Abraham, and with a couple seconds left in the 12th and final round, Abraham knocks out Taylor. Deja vu all over again. People are saying, “Haven’t they learned by now” – “Taylor had been exposed already” – “Does he have some mental problem about going the distance?” – “He can’t go the distance” – I don’t agree with any of it. My take on it, is, if you watch the Abraham – Taylor fight, that in the 12th round, Abraham catches Taylor with a perfect pin point straight right hand. And that’s what happened. Has nothing to do with anything else, he just got caught, and that’s what happens in boxing.

I must admit that I don’t think Taylor should have been put in the Super Six because there were in fact better fighters in the division. Allan Green for one, who wanted to be in it – how I wish! But after this tournament, things will be straight. Because, pay attention to this, on the 28th on HBO another huge Super Middlweight fight… undefeated IBF champ Lucian Bute will defend his title against Librado Andrade – in a rematch of a great fight, where champ Bute was down in the last round, got up, and the bell rang, Andrade just getting there too late. So by the end of the tournament, The Super Middleweight Division, because of the tourney and the Bute – Andrade fight, the division will be turned upside down and all used up (again, no sexual innuendo) I just hope Allan Green gets a shot, and since I was wishing earlier, how I wish the “chin checkers” Jaidon Codrington and Curtis Stevens turned out to be more than just talk and were in a tournament like this. They’ll never be heard from again.

One last thing… I said I predict Ward will win, well, I also predict Andre “S.O.G.” Ward will win the WHOLE tournament, then move up to light heavyweight, and dispose of Roy Jones, or if at 50 years old (I’m kidding) Hopkins is still fighting, but Hopkins would never get knocked out, Jones would. On a whole ‘nother subject, I own the first fight between Hopkins and Mercado, where it was in Mercado’s hometown and Hopkins was dropped two times! And, the decision was a draw! That’s the only time you ever see Hopkins get knocked down. In the rematch, B-Hops won the title by KO from him and went on to be the best middleweight champion in the world, knocking out names such as Trinidad and De La Hoya, and making a record, never done before 20 consecutive winning defenses of his middleweight crown until Jermain Taylor would beat him. We saw what happened to Taylor, didn’t becomes the “star” HBO invested in, while Hopkins became the first middleweight champ to win the Light Heayweight title. Maybe this tournament will produce some more light heavyweights, because, as I said, this tournament and the Bute – Andrade fight has a huge impact on this division.

If only we could get a heavyweight tourney like this!

Robert Earle Stanton is a freelance writer, short fiction author and novelist.

Check out the book The Fearless Harry Greb: Biography of a Tragic Hero of Boxing by clicking here.

See the documentary Tyson on DVD by clicking here.

To purchase the boxing video game Fight Night: Round 4, click here.

First off, I was completely appalled in only the first two fights of the “Super Six” six man round robin super middleweight tournament to crown the best “Super Middleweight” in the world. Aside from the “Six Super-Middleweights” (168 pounds) they chose, they left out undefeated IBF champ Lucian Bute, the “once beaten but has gotten better and wanted to be a part of it” in Allan Green, and then, the guy people thought got a raw deal in his fight with Bute, in super middle KO artist Andrade. Looking at the super middleweight Top 10, that’s leaving out numbers 2, 4, and 6.

The ones in the tournament, at the time, were ranked 1, 3, 8, and 0. Dirrell (we’ll talk about him in a moment) was not ranked in the top 10, and Arthur Abraham, who gave Jermain Taylor a concussion the other night, was the IBF “Middleweight” titlist – he dropped the alphabet title and moved up eight pounds north for a shot at the tourney. Let’s first learn about this tournament, which no one seems to “get” – here are the members of the tournament. This is how it looked going in, with the odds as to who would win.

Mikkel Kessler – 42-1 (32) WBA Champion (EVEN)
Carl Froch – 25-0 (21) WBC Champion (2-1)
Arthur Abraham – 30-0 (23) Former IBF Middleweight Champion (EVEN)
Andre Ward – 20-0 (13) (5-2)
Andre Dirrell – 18-0 (13) (5-2)
Jermain Taylor – 28-3-1 (17) Former Undisputed World Middleweight Champion (10-1)

Yeah, that’s a 10-1 for Jermain Taylor, who, upon his first fight, is probably now ranked around the place Buster Douglas was before almost beheading Mike Tyson in Tokyo. Now, this is how the tournament plays out, there are three stages, here they are…

STAGE 1
Abraham – Taylor
Froch – Dirrell
Kessler – Ward

STAGE 2
Abraham – Dirrell
Kessler – Froch
Ward – Taylor

STAGE 3
Dirrell – Ward
Abraham – Froch
Kessler – Taylor

Now, if you win you get 2 points, if you win by KO you get 3 points, and if you lose you get 0. So after these 3 stages, add up the points, and the 4 highest seeds go to the semi final one time elimination tournament, which goes….

SEED 1 vs SEED 4
SEED 2 vs SEED 3

The 2 winning seeds will fight each other for the crown, or whatever ya get. So we get 12 fights out of this deal. And after the first night where “Stage 1″ began, there’s controversy. A fear of mine about the tourney would come true, but not at the start of the evening.

First, we had an intriguing match, former IBF Middleweight titlist, Arthur Abraham against former Undisputed Middleweight Champ, Jermain Taylor, fighting at Super-Middleweight. I was kind of floored by Jermain Taylor being the only 10-1 underdog, and is it that severe?, well, I didn’t think so. I thought about both guys. Abraham is a puncher, and looked great against Miranda twice, and is a fighter, he’ll fight till death, but how good is he?, and now he’s moving up and Taylor has been here a few fights at this weight, eight pounds heavier, so I thought… advantage Taylor. And, I thought of his experience, Taylor beat Bernard Hopkins twice in a row, no one has done that. He fought to a draw against Winky Wright when Wright was hot. He beat guys like Spinks and Ouma. In his biggest defense, against fellow unbeaten, Taylor would knock down Kelly Pavlik early, but only to be KO’d himself later. Then, in the rematch, at a specified higher weight, Taylor would lose a hard fought decision, but gain more fans, for his mettle. At Super Middle, he would beat Lacy. He also, ironically, in his last fight, fought a fellow “Super Six” member, Carl Froch. He knocked down Froch early, and like the Pavlik fight, became the first to even knock down both of them, and then, in both fights, the guys got up, and knocked him out late. Froch KO’d him in the last round to be exact, so he was 1-3 in his last 4 coming in. Not too good. I guess that’s where the 10 to 1 comes in. So Taylor came out at a good pace, using his jab, and Abraham came out, aggressive, it was a tight fight, although Abraham was gaining more momentum and looking to do more damage, especially towards the end, and at the end, with 11 seconds left, Abraham through a straight right hand, he stepped into it, went right through the guard of Taylor’s hands, and Taylor got KO’d the 2nd time in a row in the 12th round, by two guys in the tourney, this one the only one “counting.” They didn’t even finish the count, at 7 the doctors were in the ring trying to revive him. Twice in a row Taylor gets KO’d in the 12th round??? It was scary for a moment, wondering if he was okay, later it was found he was at the hospital with a concussion. I’ve got to ask myself, even in this tournament, should Taylor continue to box? He’s gone 1-4 his last 5, and got KO’d in 3 of the 4, this time suffering a concussion. I hope he passes all medical test, but what you can’t test for is down the road. Ali always talked about how he would never become, what he called “A cigar store Indian” in Joe Louis at the end of his career – look at him now. How is this gonna effect Jermain later in life? And what’s he fighting for now?, especially with over 10-1 odds right now, he’s thought of, I’m guessing, as the easy punching bag everyone wants to fight. We’ll see what happens.

In the second fight, we got to see WBC Champ, Froch, whose last fight was KO’ing Taylor in the last round, go up against Andre “The Matrix” Dirrell. Now, for the record, Dirrell was a great Olympic, got a Bronze medal, but his first shot at glory was on HBO, when he took on “Chin Checker” Curtis Stevens. Stevens followed, sometimes ran after Dirrell, who ran the whole fight, but would stop and score once in a while. Lampley and Merchant were disgusted, and after HBO human scorecard Harold Ledderman said, “They’re doing nothing” they asked him who he had ahead, and it was Dirrell, and when asked why… “Even though he’s not doing much, it’s more than the other guy” in Stevens, who needed to take a class on how to cut off the ring, not just run in circles after a guy. Dirrell got past that, but not on HBO, but he got mighty good looking in KO victories over Hanshaw and Oganov, which were provided by Showtime. I picked him to outbox, maybe KO Froch, with his speed and underrated power, and like Abraham, something I don’t like, it was in Froch’s home town. This was my fear of the tournament, these European boxers fighting in their backyards getting hometown decisions – hey, it happens in the US when you see a guy fighting in his home town, filled with his fans, his ref, his judges. At the end of the night, I thought Dirrell clearly out-boxed, out-foxed, out-hustled, won more rounds, scored more telling blows, got ripped off a point with no warning before it, got ripped off for Froch not losing a point because he hit behind the head the whole fight, and I thought Dirrell plain defeated the champ (did I say clearly?) and it was announced to be a split decision and I thought, “well, one judge made a mistake.” Nope, it was two. They gave the match to Froch, who stays unbeaten.

Now we wait. Nov. 21st the first stage is complete when Olympian and undefeated Andre “SOG” Ward goes for WBA title against favorite Mikkel Kessler. Thankfully, it’s not overseas, not in Kessler’s hometown. This much is fact, whoever wins will have a title. And the winner of this fight goes up against Froch in stage 2, so after stage two we will have a unified Super Middleweight Champ, and that could be a huge European event with Froch and Kessler, but I see Ward, the younger guy, out-boxing and out hustling the older Kessler, whose only thing left to prove is that he was just as good as Joe Calzaghe – don’t get me started!

Robert Earle Stanton is a freelance writer, short fiction author and novelist.

Check out the book The Fearless Harry Greb: Biography of a Tragic Hero of Boxing by clicking here.

See the documentary Tyson on DVD by clicking here.

To purchase the boxing video game Fight Night: Round 4, click here.