What Chance Do Americans Dirrell, Taylor And Ward Have In The Super Six?

Boxing News 24 Tom Stokes19th August, 2009

Talk of the fighter least likely to succeed in the super middleweight super six tournament usually ends up with Carl Froch (25-0, 19 KO's), the WBC champion who's considered slow and less skilled than his competition, but what about Dirrell, Ward and Taylor, in my opinion these guys are the weakest link in the competition, and come October these three fighters and the American fans, are going to be in for a shock when they find out what they've got themselves into.

Andre Dirrell (18-0, 13 KO's), who's facing Froch in the first round has already began the smear campaign again Froch calling him the easiest of the fighters to beat, big mistake Dirrell, Taylor tried that already and although he was winning the fight, Froch the so called slow, less skilled fighter ended to show by TKO in exciting fashion. All Dirrell is doing is building himself up for a fall or should I say knockout. Yes he is undefeated but who has be beaten? A bunch of B level opponents, he's not faced anyone like Froch who can take and trade shots, I blame the American fan base as well for hyping Dirrell up, but after the 17th of October the hype will be gone and all Dirrell will be was an overrated opponent for Froch, and if he can't get past Froch what chance does he have against the other competition.

Jermain Taylor (28-3, 17 KO's), I feel this is it for Taylor now, the final nail in the coffin of his career, he's going up against former middleweight champ Arthur Abraham (30-0, 24 KO's), after Taylor got stopped by Froch I doubt he's got much left in the tank now and Abraham is knock out fighter, a brawler and Taylor doesn't cope well against brawlers (Pavlik and Froch), and if he's knocked out by Abraham his chances in the tournament are over, Taylor's got a long and hard route if he wants to get back on top, but I can't see him doing it, my guess is he's in boxing now for the money.

Andre Ward (19-0, 12 KO's), out of the three Ward is the most promising, although I can't see him causing a stir in the tournament, he had a big win over Edison Miranda (32-4, 28 KO's) and yes he's undefeated, but he does lack experience and having Mikkel Kessler (41-1, 31 KO's) as his first opponent is going to be tough, a match up I don't see him winning, but out of the three I see him making his way into the semi finals but no further.

The only reason I think these three fighters are in the tournament, is for the reason that Showtime needs an America audience to make the tournament a financial success and realistically that can't be done without hyped up American boxers. For instance Sakio Bika (28-3, 19 KO's) I believe would have been a better candidate to replace one the three American's, he's tough durable and exciting to watch, but at the end of the day he doesn't have the financial value or "hype" to his name that the three American fighters have. I only see one of these three getting to the semi finals and that's Ward, apart from that I don't see Taylor or Dirrell getting past the first 3 fights without struggling, and I don't see an American winning this tournament, not this time anyway.

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