Super Six giving boxing buzz…
By Robert Przybylo
BPrzybylo@opubco.com
While MMA and UFC are seemingly doing everything right in trying to create new fans and exploring new marketing ideas, boxing has been well behind the curve.
For years, us ‘experts’ thought there needed to be the Next Great Star to try to bring fans to the game. But after watching the Super Six World Boxing Classic, that is not needed.
Imagine that all it took was fighters willing to risk everything for the chance at getting everything. The buzz was there this last weekend for Arthur Abraham and Jermain Taylor and Carl Froch vs. Andre Dirrell.
Taylor has left the hospital and is now vacationing in Europe. That’s the best news you could hope for at this point.
Some thoughts, observations
- European crowds are absolutely fantastic. Great atmosphere at both venues. Wish it would be like that again in the US.
- Antonio Tarver is going to be one heckuva announcer. What he’s doing a real good job of right now is not turning the focus back to himself. He’s talking about the fighters. Really hope he sticks with it. I love the “Magic Man” but the last couple of years have stained what I remember of him.
- Glad we finally know the format of the Super Six. Three stages with two points for a decision win and three points for a KO win. After that, a semifinals and a final. Thank you.
- How cool is the Super Six? Because of the format, not one person (well, almost) has mentioned how Andre Dirrell is now done because he just had his first loss.
- Taylor needs to get out. And I’m not just saying that because I’m an advocate of Tulsa’s Allan Green taking his place. Taylor gave us everything he had. He took on one tough fight after another. He’s good to great, but it seems he’ll always end up just a little short. The money isn’t worth the memory loss.
- But that leads to an interesting conundrum. Say Green (or whoever) replaces someone. Does the replacement inherit the other guy’s point total, and how would that be fair? We’ll see.
- I love Gus Johnson’s excitement, but he was off the mark on Dirrell and Froch. I thought Dirrell won, too, but Johnson seemed to only notice what Dirrell did the whole night. And great to see Steve Albert back for the Abraham fight, a true class act.
- Well, we got almost a month now. 24/7 for Manny Pacquiao-Miguel Cotto starts Saturday. That fight is Nov. 14, with Mikkel Kessler and Andre Ward concluding the first stage of the Super Six on Nov. 21.
- Back later in the week as I try to muster up some enthusiasm for UFC 104. I don’t know, just think Lyoto Machida is going to wipe the floor with Shogun Rua. We’ll see.
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Nice article! It’s especially nice to read a piece where the UFC is mentioned without a ton of criticism going toward boxing. This Super Six tournament has its flaws, but at least they’re trying something different and it does look to be exciting! Keep up the good work, Bob!
Thanks for the kind words, Joe. I’ve never understood why you can’t like boxing and UFC. They can co-exist. Each have great things, each have things to improve on, but they’re both enjoyable.
- Bone