Is the Superfighter tourney in doubt?

As a follow-up to my piece “Dear Diary”, this time with more emphasis of the 5 W’s and less on love and heartbreak, I asked a couple of key people at Wednesday’s Gotham Boxing card at the Manhattan Center to comment on the proposed Superfighter heavyweight tournament and pay-per-view, now projected by their organizers for the fall in Australia.

One was Shannon Briggs, who was mentioned both at Monday’s Superfighter press conference in New York as well as in the Superfighter press release as being one of seven fighters “either locked in or in the final stages of contract negotiations.” Briggs was also one of five of these seven fighters who were not at this press conference.

Right after his third-round TKO victory over Chris Koval, and still ringside, Briggs was asked by numerous journalists the obvious “what’s next?” question. He kept repeating that he wants to fight Wladimir Klitschko at Madison Square Garden in the fall. I also asked him several times about Superfighter, and again he just repeated his desire to fight Klitschko in the fall. That is not the response of someone who would seem to be very eager to try his hand at this tournament. Also, while it otherwise does not deserve mention, one of the numerous belts Briggs either won or defended Wednesday night (who keeps track?) was the USBA heavyweight belt. That outfit is affiliated with the IBF, so winning it improves one’s chances of getting a shot at the IBF heavyweight champion, who of course is Wladimir Klitschko.

Next, the Superfighter press release said that Superfighter executives “Duval and Spooner revealed that the second Superfighter event – eight fighters competing in one day in the ‘red hot middleweight division’ – is being planned for New York City in 2007.”

But Superfighter also, as I pointed out in my piece, proposes numerous rule changes to those currently in place, both in the unified rules of the Association of Boxing Commissions, and similar rules used by other commissions: three four-round fights in a one-night tournament, 12-ounce gloves as yet not designed, no draws, instant replay to determine head butts and fouls, special scoring to encourage action, losers returning in the tournament if a winner can’t continue, etc.

So at the Gotham Boxing show, I asked Ron Scott Stevens, chairman of the New York State Athletic Commission, about the status of Superfighter in New York. He replied, “What is Superfighter?” When I told him, he said that he had not been approached by anyone from that organization.

We’ll see what happens next.