Carl Froch Vs Andre Ward: Super 6 Middleweight Tournament Final…Finally
By Gina L. Caliboso
On December 17th, finally, fight fans, finally! There will be an ending final to the Super 6 Middleweight tournament that had started back in 2009. It was a bold experiment, a very bold experiment, to see if a round robin tournament would work for boxing. Back in 2009, boxing had experienced a sense of the doldrums without anyone really getting matched up in any solid fights. It’s been a long two years. It’s been like a soap opera – injuries, a DQ, and replacement fighters. It all started to unravel. Now, the two fighters, Andre “S.O.G.” Ward, 24-0, 13 KO’s, and Carl “Cobra” Froch, 28-1, 20 KO’s, of the United Kingdom will face off. And yes, I am actually looking forward to this bout.
At stake, both Ward and Froch will be fighting for the WBC Super Middleweight and WBA Super World Super Middleweight titles. Currently, Canadian champ Lucian Bute, 30-0, 24 KO’s is undefeated and holds the IBF Super Middleweight title. It’s a very strong possibility that Bute should face the winner of the Ward vs. Froch final. But let’s consider the bout between Ward and Froch first.
To refresh our boxing memories to the start of the Super 6 tournament, in Group Stage One, Ward defeated Mikkel “Viking Warrior” Kessler, with an 11th round TD and earned the WBA Super World Middleweight title. He’s held on to the title ever since. Stage One was also well remembered for it’s first bit of drama when King Arthur Abraham defeated Jermain “Bad Intentions” Taylor, in the closing seconds of the 12th round.
In Group Stage Two, Ward faced Allan “Ghost Dog” Green, who replaced Taylor, with a 12 round unanimous decision. It was an expected that Green might put up more of a fight or provide some competition, but it wasn’t the case. Ward easily defeated Green and successfully defended his WBA title.
Meanwhile, Kessler had to pull out due to injury as well as Andre “Matrix” Dirrell. Ward and Dirrell were scheduled to face one another, but Ward earned a forfeit win when Dirrell pulled out in their fight due to suffering neurological problems. You remember this bit of drama or tragedy perhaps. While fighting Abraham, Dirrell was down on the canvas when Abraham punched him. Abraham got the DQ and Dirrell earned the win, but he hasn’t fought in about a year. Finally, yes, the semifinal stage, Ward faced Abraham and earned the victory in a 12 round unanimous decision. Whew, that’s Ward’s journey to the final. Let’s also remember that Ward had suffered a cut while sparring a few months back and THIS final had to be delayed by 2 months. But so far, all is quiet and set for December 17th.
We haven’t even talked about Froch’s journey to the final yet. So hang on there and let me catch you up.
In Group Stage One, Froch faced Andre “The Matrix” Dirrell. Over 12 rounds, Froch eventually earned a split decision win and retained his WBC Super Middleweight title. It was a close bout with questionable scoring. Dirrell had been deducted a point because the referee judged that Dirrell had been ‘pulling’ Froch towards him. Although, I’d argue that Froch’s particular fighting style with his hands down most of the time merits that he does the same thing, but he didn’t get called on it. In Group Stage Two, Froch faced Kessler.
Coming back from his loss against Ward where Kessler suffered some cuts above his eyes, Kessler fought a very technical fight against Froch and it paid off. Kessler takes the WBC title from Froch in a 12 round unanimous decision. But Kessler didn’t keep the title for very long nor did he stay in the tournament. Kessler had to pull out due to an injury and replaced by Glen “Gentleman” Johnson. However, Froch progressed in the tournament. In Group Stage 3, Froch went up against Abraham to earn a 12 round unanimous decision, getting back the vacated WBC Super Middleweight title. In the semifinal round, Froch faced Johnson and earned a 12 round majority decision.
It sounds like a long 2 years. But here the tournament finale finally ends and I didn’t predict that Froch would be in the final. From the outset, I saw that Ward had the stuff that makes champions. He just hasn’t received the notoriety that he rightly deserves. He’s an incredible southpaw fighter with a great jab and puts together great power combos. In this tournament, he hasn’t ever been in trouble. I wished he could have fought against Dirrell because that would have really put his skills to test. Ward is a much stronger fighter than Froch and he’s shown he gets better as the fight goes into the later rounds.
Carl “Cobra” Froch will have to be more technical and when he faces Ward, he can’t count on the decision to go his way. As his tournament record shows, he’s managed 3 wins, doing just enough to win the decision. When he’s exchanging, especially on the inside, he’s good. Froch will have to put some combinations together and work inside against Ward.
The super middleweight division is one of the more competitively packed divisions. Lucian Bute is currently ranked #1, Ward ranked #2, and Froch ranked #3. While Bute remains undefeated and recently defeated Johnson, Bute’s best competition will be to fight Ward. Up to now, Bute hasn’t faced any real challenges because the super middleweights were tied up in the tournament. But now, it will be up to Bute to get the fight against Ward.
So finally, December 17th marks the finale of a boxing experiment of trial and error, so goes the beginning of possibility for the super middleweight division. Let’s keep our fingers crossed and we’ll talk Ward versus Bute – eventually.
