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Super Middleweight Super 6 tournament notes PDF Print E-mail
Showtime Championship Boxing Recap Part 1
 
October 17, 2009
O2 World Arena-Berlin, Germany
 
 
 
This is part 1 of a 2 part recap covering the first 2 matches of Showtime's Super Six World Boxing Classic to crown an undisputed champion at 168 pounds. This part will cover the first match in the tournament that is airing on tape delay. The second part of this recap will cover the second match in the tournament that is airing live on Showtime. That will be Andre Dirrell challenging for Carl Froch's 168-pound title in Nottingham, England.
 
 
 
All recaps featuring Super Six matches will begin with a recap of the tournament rules and standings. They will all end with an updated look at the tournament standing. At this point, there have been no matches. That means Arthur Abraham, Jermain Taylor, Andre Dirrell, Carl Froch, Andre Ward and Mikkel Kessler are tied for first with 0 points.
 
The rules for this 6-person modified round robin tournament are more complicated then the Dewey Decimal System. Also, due to various reasons not all of the details of the tournament are known. Here is what a sample of what is known. This is not a single elimination tournament. Instead, every boxer in the tournament is guaranteed 3 matches with advancement being determined on a points system similar to the way tournaments are run in Japanese pro-wrestling. Like in Japanese pro-wrestling, the person who wins the match gets 2 points. If there is a draw, both boxers get 1 point. There are no points awarded for a loss. In the case of a boxer earning a stoppage victory, they get 3 points. The 4 boxers with the most points advance after the preliminary stage. They will then be seeded in the semi-final's based on the preliminary stage finish, but that is an issue for 2011. (The finals of this tournament are tentatively scheduled for June 2011.) There are no ties in this tournament. In case 2 boxers end up tied going into the semi-finals, just like in Japanese pro-wrestling, the first tie-breaker is how they did head-to-head. The second tie-breaker is number of knockout victories. For example, a boxer with 4 points via a knockout win and a draw would advance over a boxer with 2 decision victories. This shows how much more important knockout victories are compared to regular victories. The third tie-breaker, is judges' points in favor of each boxer. That means no boxer in this tournament's corner will be able to throw in the towel very easily. Lasting 1 more round before being stopped could be 27 more points in a boxer's favor. That could be huge. It also means boxers cannot feel comfortable taking rounds off in a match they are going to win. Boxers are going to need to work to win every round if they reach the point they are looking to advance on this tie-breaker.  If there is still a tie at that point, advancement will be decided by coin toss. Finally, no competitor can make a mandatory title defense during the tournament. Respecting this decision the WBC has decided that they will not require any mandatory defenses of the belt currently wrapped around Froch's waist during the tournament. The WBA belt currently wrapped around Kessler's waist will probably be stripped from whoever holds it by the time this tournament has ended. However, the winner of this tournament should pick up The Ring Championship to replace it and there has been a very fancy large silver trophy crafted in Europe to be presented to the winner.

 
 
Super Six World Boxing Classic: The Super Middleweights Group Stage 1 (168 pounds) 12-Round Match:
Arthur Abraham (30-0, 24 KO's, 168 pounds) vs. Jermain Taylor (28-3-1, 17 KO's, 166.25 pounds)
 
 
Abraham is the epitome of an European boxer. Abraham boxes out of a high guard, similar to what Winky Wright uses. (Wright learned that boxing style when he spent years plying his trade in Europe.) However, there is a key difference in the way the native of Armenia, now residing in Berlin, Germany, and Wright apply their craft. Wright is very active with his jab out of his defensive shell. Abraham is a very passive counter-puncher. Wright looks to win matches on points with his jab. Abraham gives away rounds with his passivity and looks to win matches by knockout. The native European lands powerful combinations after his opponents have exhausted themselves punching his arms.
 
Showtime ran a 20 minute countdown show to preview the Super Six and either intentionally or not they hammered home the fact that Abraham so embodied what Americans think of as the stereotypical European, that the boxer could steal Claudio Castagnoli's gimmick of being "very European". Showtime filmed Abraham for a day and the boxer wore a pair of pants that were "very European". They were a pair of shiny black jeans that were much tighter then any pair of jeans that would be worn in the United States. At another point in the piece, Abraham was stopped in his car by a woman for an autograph. The look on his face and comment he made as she walked away were "very European". The scene was straight out of the 1970's Steve Martin and Dan Akroyd skits on Saturday Night Live. This was ridiculous to the point that it seems Showtime may plan to fly Dave Prazak to this match to have him scream about how the crowd should be showering the boxer with streamers when he hits the ring.
 
Abraham's last match was a technical knockout victory at 1:23 of round 10 over Mahir Oral when Oral's corner threw in the towel on June 27, 2009 at Max Schmeling Halle in Berlin. In typical fashion, Abraham started slow and gave the first few rounds away through simple inactivity. However after 3 rounds, Oral appeared to be tiring from hitting Abraham's arms. Abraham capitalized knocking Oral down with a combination with 42 seconds to go in round 4. The native of Hamburg, Germany, gamely recovered to last out the round. With 1:04 to go in round 6, a right hand put Oral on the canvas for the second time in the match, and for a second time an exhausted Oral was able to make it out of the round without being knocked out. At this point, it appeared Abraham could have scored the knockout had he come out of his defensive shell to pour on the offense, but that is not his style. Oral actually appeared to come back to win round 7, because Abraham was once again very passive. With 2:40 to go in round 10, Oral dropped to a knee the mat after a hard left hook. A right hook to the body had Oral take a knee on the canvas with 2:16 to go still in round 10. Oral had never been knocked out in his professional boxing career, but that time Oral took a knee as code to his corner that he wanted out of this match. Still, he got up at the referee's count of 5 and was allowed to continue. At this point, Showtime removed the clock in the corner of the screen to hide the savagery of the beating Oral was taking. A combination finished off with a left hand to the body dropped Oral to the mat for the third time in round 10, while the Showtime clock was hidden. With the 3 knockdown rule not in effect, the referee told Oral he would stop the match on the next knockdown and allowed Oral to continue with still 1:42 to go in round 10.  This was the fifth time Oral had been knocked down in this match. Entering this match, Oral had only been knocked down twice before in his previous 28 match professional boxing career. Luckily before any more punches could be thrown, Oral's corner threw in the towel. As an act of mercy, Abraham indicated to the referee that Oral's corner had thrown in the towel. That is what caused the stoppage. Abraham's performance in this match sounds impressive, but in reality it was underwhelming. Oral had no significant wins on his record when facing the highly regarded Abraham. The native of Hamburg was only getting a shot at Abraham, because he was the mandatory contender to Abraham's 160-pound belt. Abraham should have scored a much quicker knockout had he really gone for the finish. Instead, Abraham treated Oral as the most dangerous opponent in the world and at times produced a terrible match to watch. At the time, it seemed Showtime was airing this match in the hopes of landing a match between Abraham and Kelly Pavlik, the top ranked boxer at 160 pounds. It is now clear that Showtime aired the match to promote Abraham in advance of this tournament. A full recap of that match can be found here: http://www.number1contender.net/the-latest/2009/10/6/recap-of-arthur-abraham-vs-mahir-oral.html
 
Abraham is currently unranked by The Ring magazine, since he announced his move up in weight to 168 pounds. He vacated his position as The Ring's number 1 contender at 160 pounds to their champion in the weight class, Kelly Pavlik, to make the move to 168 pounds.
 
Taylor had an outstanding amateur boxing career that culminated when he won a bronze medal in the 156-pound division for the United States at the 2000 Sydney Summer Olympics. The Olympic tournament was the last time Taylor boxed outside of the United States.
 
Taylor's last match was a technical knockout loss at 2:46 of round 12 to Carl Froch on April 25, 2009 at the Foxwoods Resort in Mashantucket, Connecticut. Taylor is the only boxer coming into this tournament off a loss. The Little Rock, Arkansas native came into the match with Froch saying he was more motivated then he had been in years and in the early rounds the American showed it. With 42 seconds to go in round 3, a big right hand dropped Froch to the canvas. That was the first time Froch had been knocked down in his amateur or professional boxing career. Froch was very shaky getting up from the knockdown. However, Taylor did not go hard to finish Froch in round 3, feeling the Englishman still had a lot left. That allowed Froch to make it out of the round. Taylor continued to dominate the next few rounds and after 5 rounds was probably up on some of the official scorecards by 6 points. Taylor continued to dominate the middle rounds, winning most of those rounds on the official judges' scorecards. However, Taylor started to fatigue badly as the match continued. Round 10 was Taylor's worst of the match. In round 11, Froch appeared to out-work Taylor to win the round. Entering round 12, Froch knew he was in serious jeopardy of losing his title and poured on the offense in the final round. The Englishman had Taylor hurt and in trouble about 30 seconds into round 12. Finally with 44 seconds to go in round 12, a right hand dropped Taylor to the mat. Taylor landed with his head resting against the turnbuckle pad and looked too exhausted to beat the count. Yet, the Arkansas native managed to struggle to his feet at the referee's count of 9. Under normal circumstances a referee may have stopped the match here. In the final round of a possibly close championship match, the referee decided to give Taylor some leeway to continue. Thirty seconds later, Taylor was trapped in the corner eating combinations and the referee was forced to stop the match. It was a nearly identical scene to when Taylor lost his 160-pound titles to Pavlik. The small crowd that had been chanting "USA" at points during the match was now cheering themselves hoarse in support of the Englishman. It turned out Froch needed the knockout to win. Even losing round 12, 10-8, Taylor would have taken Froch's title via split decision. Taylor became only the eleventh boxer on record to lose a title match via knockout in the final round when leading on the official judges' scorecards. (That is a somewhat bogus stat, because that has probably happened several times when the official judges' scorecards were not disclosed.) A full recap of that match can be found here: http://www.number1contender.net/the-latest/2009/10/7/recap-of-carl-froch-vs-jermain-taylor.html
 
That was the third time in 4 matches that Taylor has been ahead in a match and gone on to lose, because he has run out of gas. Worse, it was the second time in 2 title matches that Taylor has been ahead on points and been knocked out, because of his conditioning did not match his opponents. (The other time was the previously referenced match against Pavlik. There after scoring an early knockdown and only losing 1 round on 1 of the official judges' scorecards, Taylor was knocked out at 2:14 of round 7. A full recap of that match can be found here: http://www.number1contender.net/the-latest/2008/10/18/recap-of-kelly-pavlik-vs-jermain-taylor-i.html) After the collapse against Froch, Taylor went to a doctor to see if there was a medical reason for his conditioning problems. A series of tests determined that Taylor was fatiguing in the ring, because he was cutting too much weight before all of his matches. For this match, Taylor is watching his diet much closer and plans to be on weight well in advance of the official weigh-ins. Even doing that, Taylor should be the heavier boxer in the ring when the match starts.
 
Taylor is The Ring's number 8 contender to their vacant championship at 168 pounds.
 
At 29-years old, Abraham is 2 years younger then the 31-year-old Taylor. Taylor has the height advantage standing 5' 11" tall, while Abraham stands 5' 9" tall. The American also has the reach advantage with a 74.5" wingspan, compared to the European's 72" wingspan. Neither boxers' unofficial weight approaching match time is available, but as noted earlier it is expected that Taylor will be the heavier boxer in the ring. However, both boxers said they expect to be about 175 pounds in the ring. Both boxers will employ the orthodox stance. USA Today's Danny Sheridan has Abraham listed as a co-favorite to win this tournament with Kessler, both at 1-to-1 odds. Taylor is Sheridan's long shot to win this tournament at 10-to-1. For this match, Sheridan lists Abraham as a 13-to-5 favorite.
 
All matches in this tournament will be contested under the unified rules of boxing. The judges keeping official score of this match from ringside are from Italy, South Africa and Canada. The referee is Guadalupe Garcia.
 
Taylor gets a massive standing ovation coming to the ring in hostile territory from the sellout crowd of over 14,000 fans. That is because of the song Taylor chose for his entrance. As the crowd claps along to the beat and screams. Taylor pays respect to the defining musician of his era entering to Michael Jackson's classic "Bad". To prove that the crowd loved the song much more then Taylor, the boxer was booed and whistled when he was introduced in the ring without the music. Still, the music seems to have lessened the crowds animosity. Abraham is bettering Taylor entering with elaborate fireworks to the Scorpions song "3, 2, 1". In fact, The Scorpions are actually in the building, playing their song as Abraham enters. This is coming off far better then Kid Rock's concert at WrestleMania XXV as the roar of the crowd is being picked up well by the in-house microphones. This crowd appears to be loosing their minds cheering as the Scorpions play and Abraham has yet to appear before the crowd. This broadcast is coming across far more like a rock concert then a boxing event at this point, and so far it has been a tremendous concert. Abraham is now descending into the arena from a platform in the rafters wearing an amazing robe that makes him out to look somewhat like a lion. This has caused the crowd to get even louder, which seemed impossible a few seconds earlier. The pre-match pageantry here was simply phenomenal. There is only 1 problem with it. The boxers in the ring now have to follow it with an exciting match to equal the pre-match spectacle. The fans normally would expect the hometown boxer to be energized by the crowd and start fast. Unfortunately, that is not Abraham's style and no amount of cheering is likely to change that. However, the fantastic entrance should save the boxers from being booed in what could be a very lackluster opening few rounds.
 
Abraham starts relatively fast and lands more clean punches to take round 1, 10-9. With 1:54 to go in round 2, Abraham takes a right hand to the groin. Abraham complains to the referee about the foul. In response, the referee calls timeout for Abraham to recover with 1:46 to go in the round. The referee warns Taylor to keep his punches up, while the crowd boos and whistles at the American. Abraham took about 1 minute to recover and then said he was okay to continue. Taylor may have won a close round 2, 10-9. This match is somewhat difficult to accurately score off television, because the director is getting creative at times and giving viewers a bad view of the action. Boxing matches should not be shot with the panoramic lens on the camera on a zip line. Like the other recent event featuring bad camera work featuring Mikkel Kessler, this event is promoted by Sauerland Promotions and there is a chance they are using some of the same crew that shot match. After round 2, heavyweight titleholder Nikolai Valuev is shown in the crowd. Steve Farhood, who is doing color commentary of this match for Showtime, scored rounds 1 and 2 for Taylor, 10-9. Taylor may have barely won round 3 by being a lot busier then Abraham, 10-9. After round 3, Kessler is shown sitting in the crowd. Kessler is actually sitting next to Valuev. The Dane is a gigantic 168-pounder and looks tiny next to the heavyweight titleholder. Abraham and Kessler (and Valuev) are stablemates with Sauerland and have actually been doing some training at the same gym (not together) in preparing for their Group Stage 1 matches. Round 4 is Taylor's best of the match and he wins it easily, 10-9, and leads on my scorecard after 4 rounds, 39-37. Taylor was upset about Abraham hitting him behind the head in rounds 2 and 3. Therefore, Taylor came out very aggressively in round 4. At this point, this match is going the way it was expected to go. Abraham has started slow, like normal. Taylor has started fast, like normal. Abraham is probably going to need Taylor to fade to win this match via knockout in the later rounds. If Taylor's conditioning is finally at that elite level, there should be no Abraham rally and Taylor should win an easy decision victory.
 
At the start of round 5, there is some swelling above Abraham's right eye. It is not a problem at this point. Steve Albert, who has been brought out of mothballs to fill in for the ailing Nick Charles to do play-by-play of this match, reveals at the start of round 5, that the German television station ARV is responsible for the production on this broadcast. So far, they have shown themselves to be outstanding at shooting a rock concert, but lacking in their ability to shoot a boxing match. Taylor out-works Abraham to win a close round 5, 10-9. Abraham is simply doing too little punching to win many of these rounds. With 1:19 to go in round 6, Taylor lands a combination that may have included a low blow and is going to be docked a point. That appears to be a pretty terrible call. Whatever punch Taylor is being penalized for was largely missed on the live camera shot. Additionally, it did not appear to be a significant blow. Abraham has his trunks up ridiculously high and did not even sell this punch like he was hurt much. The European seemed merely annoyed by the punch. Also, taking a point in this tournament is huge. A referee has to know the format of the tournament going in to every match and be very judicious in taking points in matches of this magnitude. The third tie-breaker in this tournament is total points in favor on the official judges' scorecards. That call could cost Taylor a close match, but it also costs him 3 points in what could be a crucial tie-breaker down the line. Abraham does not need any additional time to recover after the punch that drew the point deduction, and the action is resumed with around 1:12 to go in the round. The busier Taylor would have won round 6, but the point deduction makes the round even, 9-9. After 6 rounds, Taylor leads on my scorecard, 58-55. Farhood scored rounds 3 and 4 for Taylor, 10-9. He then gave round 5 to Abraham, 10-9, and round 6 to Abraham, 10-8. That puts Taylor ahead on the Farhood only by the score of 57-56.
 
Abraham appeared to have Taylor hurt at the end of round 7. Despite being badly out-worked, Abraham landed the more effective punches to win round 7, 10-9. The crowd has been exceptionally loud throughout this entire event. That is incredible, because for a lot of it Abraham has been doing practically nothing. At this point in the match, Taylor's stamina appears to be holding up much better then usual. In particular, Taylor's defense is holding up much better then usual at this point in the match and he has yet to resort to clinching. These are all very good signs. However, the few power punches Abraham has landed seem to have sapped the American's power. Taylor's more consistent punching wins round 8, 10-9. It appears Abraham may actually be the more tired boxer at this point. It appears fatigue has forced Abraham out of his tight defensive shell. Abraham's hands are dropping and they are now spread very far apart. This is making him very hittable. The European's power is still holding up, though. Farhood scored both rounds 7 and 8 for Abraham, 10-9. With 2:07 to go in round 9, a huge right hand has Taylor staggering, but still on his feet. Actually, on replay it appears Taylor was hit with a hard straight right hand and a hard right elbow behind the ear as Abraham followed through on his punch. The American is in a lot of trouble and it appears Abraham is seconds away from finishing this match as Taylor struggles to clinch. Taylor seemed finished, and then Abraham just stopped punching. Abraham spent the last 1:30 of the round in his defensive shell for no apparent reason. He even spent the last 5 seconds of the round running away from Taylor. A knockout victory in this tournament is worth 3 points, compared to a normal victory that is worth 2 points. In addition, the second tie-breaker is knockout victories. This makes Abraham's strategy in the last 1:30 of round 9 inexplicable. Abraham wins round 9 huge, 10-9. He would have won it, 10-8, even without the knockdown had he done any punching in the last half of the round. After 9 rounds, Taylor still leads on my scorecard, 86-84.
 
Abraham landed a few good punches to win a close round 10, 10-9. Taylor seems to know what he needs to do to beat Abraham, but be unable to execute that strategy. The American is circling to his left into the path of Abraham's hard right hands. Taylor knows he needs to circle to his right to land his right hand and be out of range of Abraham's right hand. However, Taylor is throwing a lot of jabs and the natural motion of an orthodox boxer after they throw a jab is to fall off to their left. Also, Taylor knows he needs to try and counter Abraham who throws wide punches. Taylor has the better handspeed and should be able to beat Abraham to the target. The problem is Taylor is not usually a counter-puncher and when forced to do it here, he has been unable properly time his counters the entire match. There is a few second delay starting round 11, because Abraham's trunks need to be taped to stay in place. German television is kind enough to give viewers a close-up of Abraham's bottom to show the tape job. Abraham's trunks are falling down, because they are soaked with sweat and his white trunks have become opaque. Apparently, Abraham has on red underpants today. This is outstanding. The tape job they used to cinch up Abraham's waistband has resulted in the boxer tearing his trunks down the seam of the crotch with about 1 minute to go in round 11. This is a massive tear, too. This is like when Spanky ripped his pants during a match in ROH's first year of existence. Within 30 seconds, the tear in Abraham's pants has extended down the seam on the front of Abraham's trunks to other seams. The seam on his left leg is nearly gone and soon he will be wearing a half skirt. It has also wrapped around to the seam running straight down the back of his trunks, so there is now a wide gaping whole showing off Abraham's backside. He may be best off just boxing in his cup at this point. Giving the world a far more revealing look at him then they probably wanted, Abraham wins round 11, 10-9. That makes the match even on my scorecard entering round 12, 104-104. It will be fascinating to see what tape job Abraham comes out with to start round 12 and terrifying if German television decides viewers need a close-up. Abraham's corner decided they had done enough damage trying to tape their charge's trunks the first time and sent the boxer out to start round 12 as is. A right hand between the gloves has Taylor flat on his back with 15 seconds to go in the final round. Taylor does not look like he is going to get up from that punch. The doctor has entered the ring and is not going to let the referee finish the count. This is one of the most impressive knockouts of the year. Again, Taylor has lost by knockout in the final 15 seconds of a match. On replay, it appears Taylor was out and his eyes were closed before he hit the canvas. Whatever initial movement Taylor showed on the ground was involuntary. Taylor is still down on the canvas about a minute after this knockdown. However, he is conscious. After about another minute, Taylor is up and seems to be relatively okay.
 
The official outcome courtesy of the legendary Michael Buffer is that at: 2:54 of round 12 the winner by way of spectacular knockout and still undefeated, "King" Arthur Abraham. The win moves Abraham to 31-0 with now 25 wins coming by way of knockout. The all important official judges' scorecards were not disclosed immediately after this match.
 
Abraham was much better in this match then he was in knocking out Oral. However, he is still a frustrating boxer to watch. Abraham's workrate is so inconsistent it is maddening. Abraham should have knocked Taylor out in round 9. In fact, Abraham probably could have stopped Taylor even earlier then that had he worked at an even moderate pace. The tremendous crowd that turned out for this match and cheered the slightest action hid how truly lethargic Abraham was in the ring. Abraham showed a slew of vulnerabilities in this match. The thing is people knew about most of them heading into this tournament. The only new flaw Abraham showed was in his conditioning. Abraham was very tired by the end of this match. On paper, the underdog Taylor was Abraham's toughest opponent by a large margin. Abraham is going to have to beat boxers a lot better then Taylor is today to win this tournament and they will take advantage of the European should he begin to tire. Abraham's next match will be against Andre Dirrell in January in the United States.
 
This may have been the last match of Taylor's outstanding boxing career. In fact, it should be the last match of Taylor's career. Taylor was unbeaten through his first 27 professional matches. In his last 5 professional matches, Taylor is 1-4 with 3 knockout losses in less then 25 months. Taylor was diagnosed with a severe concussion after the match and is currently resting in a Berlin hospital where he will spend the next week. The doctors are not allowing Taylor to fly for the time being and are going to spend the next week putting him through a battery of tests to see if he is relatively okay. After the match, Taylor was having severe headaches and suffering from short term memory loss. In the locker room, Taylor twice asked his promoter, Lou DiBella, what round he got knocked out in. While still in the locker room, Taylor asked his wife that same question twice after twice getting the answer from his promoter. That was because he did not remember asking the question any of the previous times. It appears that Taylor was not hurt the most by the punch that knocked him out. Instead, the severe damage came from Taylor falling unconscious onto the back of his head on the mat. Taylor was unable to brace himself during the fall and the back of his head bounced very hard on the unforgiving ring floor. In boxing, there is only a 1" pad between the canvas and the wood braced by steel that make up the boxing surface. As noted, this is the third time Taylor has been knocked out in his last 5 matches. Taylor took a tremendous beating when Pavlik knocked him unconscious. The Froch knockout was the least severe of the 3. However, it now appears that may have been too much. After this it seems far too dangerous for Taylor to continue boxing, let alone in a tournament with this level of competition. On top of suffering the knockout loss, Taylor demonstrated that, while his conditioning has improved, his skills are eroding. Taylor knew what to do to beat Abraham, but his body no longer has the ability to do what he needs it to do. The American still sees the openings and punches coming to the point he knows what to do. The problem is his body will no longer react to throw the punches at the right time or dodge at the key moment. In this match, more then any of the previous matches, the dialogue in Taylor's corner revealed how much the boxer's reaction have slowed and why it is vital he stop boxing immediately. When a boxer reaches this point in their career, they can get badly hurt by continuing in this sport.
 
Taylor is supposed to face Andre Ward sometime in the Spring of 2010. After that Taylor would have to go to Denmark to face Kessler. Ward is not a devastating knockout punches, but at this point, the powerful Kessler could do a frightening amount of damage to Taylor. The tournament has a plan in place should one of the competitors be injured and unable to continue. Another DiBella promoted boxer, Allan Green, is the tournament's first alternate and will likely get the shot against Ward.
 
If this is it for Taylor, he has had a great career. Taylor is an Olympic bronze medalist. In 2005, Taylor became the second boxer in history to hold all 4 sanctioned titles at 160 pounds at the same time. That feat earned him a meeting with President Clinton. Taylor was The Ring Champion at 160 pounds and held the belt for over 2 years. To do that, Taylor successfully defended the belt against future Hall of Famers Bernard Hopkins and Winky Wright. He faced some of the best opposition possible in his career. Nine of his final 10 matches were against reigning or recent titleholders. Taylor is still clearly a title level contender at 168 pounds, but continuing to compete among boxing's upper echelon is clearly a bad idea for Jermain "Bad Intentions" Taylor. If this is it, Taylor ends his career 28-4-1 with 17 victories coming by way of knockout.
 
 
 
After this match, Abraham leads the tournament with 3 points, 1 knockout victory and an unclear number of official judges' points in his favor. Taylor is in second with no points, but some total of judges' points in his favor. Froch, Dirrell, Kessler and Ward are all tied for third with 0 points pending their first match in the tournament. Now, this portion of the broadcast is a strongly recommended watch. The rock concert to start the show and great crowd gave this match a true big match feel. The action in the ring was lackluster at times and the camera work was frustrating, but boxing fans should probably tune in to see potentially the last match in the decorated career of Taylor.
 
 
 
News and Notes: Following the last recap, Vitali Klitschko has remained The Ring's number 1 contender at heavyweight to their champion in the weight class, his "little" brother Wladimir Klitschko. Despite being knocked out by Klitschko, Chris Arreola's showing was considered strong enough that The Ring kept Arreola as their number 6 contender at heavyweight.
 
Allan Green secured his spot as the alternate in this tournament with a 10-round unanimous decision victory over late replacement Tarvis Simms in the main event of a ShoBox event on October 2 in Newkirk, Oklahoma. It was not a great performance by Green, but it set him up to enter the tournament on schedule with the rest of the boxers. That seems imminent, despite the uninspiring performance, making it a success. Showtime used Curt Menefee as the play-by-play broadcaster for this telecast as the network struggles for a fill-in for usual ShoBox play-by-play broadcaster Nick Charles who is on medical leave getting treatment for cancer. It was Menefee's first time calling boxing and in a pleasant surprise he was pretty good. Having heard Menefee call numerous football games, he appears to have more potential as a boxing broadcaster then he does as an NFL broadcaster and Menefee is a good football commentator.
 
Zab Judah has announced his next match. Judah had landed a high profile spot on the undercard of the September 19 Floyd Mayweather, Jr.-Juan Manuel Marquez, because he was a friend of Mayweather's. However, Judah then pulled out for a reason that has yet to become public, but is by all accounts very poor. Judah is going to co-main event a pay-per-view on November 6 from the Palms Casino in Las Vegas, Nevada with Joel Casamayor. The event will be called "Road to Redemption" and will not be promoted by Golden Boy Promotions, who promoted the PPVG on September 19 that did over 1 million buys. It is also not going to be promoted by Mayweather Promotions, which is not a licensed promoter in Nevada. It is going to be promoted by Vargas Entertainment and Promotion, Fernando Vargas' promotional company. Judah was going to face Antonio Diaz on September 19. A win there would have likely had Judah challenging for a title at 140 pounds by the middle of 2010. Now he will face Ramon Montano. A victory over Montano in this scheduled 10-rounder can have Judah headlining more minor PPV's that a handful of people buy. There is no opponent announced for Casamayor at this time. However, Casamayor says he will be moving up to 140 pounds for the match.
 
Bernard Hopkins has decided he will take his allowed tune-up match prior to rematching Roy Jones, Jr. in early 2010 on HBO PPV. Hopkins will face Enrique Ornelas in a 12-round 175-pound match on December 2 at the Liacouras Center in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The match will be carried live on Versus. Hopkins would have preferred to not have to take a tune-up match and face Jones on January 30. Unfortunately, Jones is scheduled to challenge Danny Green for a fringe 200-pound title that day in Australia. (The Jones-Green match is currently not set to air in the United States, but there are talks underway for it to air on tape delay on Versus on the same broadcast as the Hopkins match.) Normally, in a situation like this Jones would be expected to pull out of his match with Green. Boxers pulling out of matches to take better matches happens all the time. It is so common, boxing fans do not hear about it most of the time. The difference in this case is that Jones is being paid $4 million to face Green. If Hopkins-Jones bombs at the gate and on PPV, which is a strong possibility, Jones could make more facing Green in a match not aired in the United States then to face Hopkins. That is why Jones is going through the unusual step of following through with his match with Green and forcing Hopkins to face Ornelas on the campus of Temple University. This is a great way to start the build toward the first big boxing PPV of 2009 with 2 boxers competing in matches only the very hardcore fans will see and not necessarily those in this country.
 
HBO has announced that the opening match on the December 5 World Championship Boxing event featuring Kelly Pavlik vs. Paul Williams for Pavlik's 160-pound titles will be Joshua Clottey vs. Carlos Quintana. It will be a 10-rounder at a 149-pound catch-weight. The only reason this match is on the card is that HBO promised to put Clottey on one of their televised boxing cards in the final months of 2009. They originally told Clottey they would televise a match between him and Shane Mosley on December 26. HBO then realized it was a terrible idea to run a major boxing event the day after Christmas. However, Clottey was adamant that HBO get him 1 match on the network in the remainder of 2009. Therefore, he got shoehorned onto this broadcast.
 
Also announced for December 5, Amir Khan will make a mandatory defense of his 140-pound title against Dmitriy Salita at the Metro Radio Arena in Newcastle, England. In theory, the winner of this match will face the winner of the November 21 match between Marcos Maidana and William Gonzalez in Argentina. Maidana holds the interim version of Khan's belt, but strangely is not the mandatory challenger. Coincidentally, not making Maidana the mandatory contender will net the WBA who has handed out all of these trinkets sanctioning fees for at least 2 superfluous title matches.
 
Now for this week's Mayweather news. On October 2, Las Vegas police issued an arrest warrant for Roger Mayweather. Mayweather did not show up to a court hearing that day. The hearing was in regards to the charges that Mayweather beat up a woman. The press contacted Floyd Mayweather, Jr. when Roger, the boxer's uncle and trainer, no showed his court date. Junior essentially told reporters that he is staying out of it. The warrant for Roger's arrest ended up being quashed by the judge who issued it on October 8. At the same time the judge announced Roger's preliminary hearing will be held on January 15. According to Roger's attorney, the trainer plans to plead not guilty at that hearing. As for how Roger no showed his court date, Roger's lawyer reportedly said that was due to a misunderstanding. That seems legitimate as lots of misunderstandings result in warrants being issued. Roger may have had his cell phone off while the story about the warrant appeared in the press and the media called his family, so he did not know to contact the court for 6 days. That seems like a perfectly reasonable explanation.
 
Where there is a story about the Mayweather's playing their stereotypical heel roles, there must be a story building up the virtues of Junior's potential next babyface opponent. Here it is. The associated press ran a story the day after Roger got his warrant cleared up about Manny Pacquiao taking a break from training to help the needy. Earlier this month, the Philippines experienced the worst flooding the country had seen in 40 years. The Philippines were hit by 2 straight storms that caused numerous mudslides and killed nearly 500 people. In the article, Pacquiao's promoter, Bob Arum, describes how Pacquiao worked out in the pouring rain then went down to the city to deliver food and supplies to the needy villagers. Arum said, "It's just incredible." (Arum neglected to say Pacquiao rode out to the villagers on his white horse.) The article then goes on to compare Pacquiao to Spider-Man. (Could not even make that up if I tried.) Pacquiao probably did a lot of what was described in the article. There was no name on this article, which makes sense. This article fawned over Pacquiao so much it may have been a Top Rank Promotions press release. In an odd bit of timing, this story came out on a Friday. The story about Roger's trial date came out on a Thursday. Nothing is unusual about that on the surface. However, Pacquiao helped the villagers on the previous Sunday. With the time difference to the West Coast of the United States, that is nearly a 6 day lag in this story getting published. That seems really strange in the internet age, especially since Pacquiao should have had an HBO crew with him filming the new 24/7 series at the time.
 
 
 
The next recap will be coming out tomorrow covering the live match on this featuring Andre Dirrell challenging for Carl Froch's 168-pound title in the second match of the Super Six World Boxing Classic.
 
 
 
Sincerely,
 

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