***King Arthur, Kessler thrilled to participate in SHOWTIME´s “Super Six World Boxing Classic”***
Undefeated IBF Middleweight Champion King Arthur Abraham and WBA Super-Middleweight Champion Mikkel Kessler will participate in SHOWTIME´s ground-breaking Super Six World Boxing Classic tournament, it was revealed during a press conference in New York City today. The inaugural Super Six World Boxing Classic is a round-robin, six-fighter tournament featuring the class of the Super-Middleweight division from the USA and Europe. The world renowned fighters have a staggering combined record of 161-4-1 with 117 knockouts. There are four undefeated fighters, two current world champions, two young, unbeaten, world-ranked contenders and one former undisputed world titleholder. The field is comprised of International Boxing Federation (IBF) middleweight champion Arthur Abraham (30-0, 24 KOs), of Germany, who will move up to challenge at super-middleweight, U.S. Olympic medallist and top-ranked contender Andre “The Matrix” Dirrell (18-0, 13 KOs) of Flint, Mich., World Boxing Council (WBC) super-middleweight champion Carl “The Cobra’’ Froch (25-0, 20 KOs) of England, World Boxing Association (WBA) super-middleweight champion Mikkel “Viking Warrior’’ Kessler (41-1, 31 KOs) of Denmark, former undisputed midleweight world champion Jermain “Bad Intentions” Taylor (28-3-1, 17 KOs) of Little Rock, Ark., and U.S. Olympic gold medallist and No. 1-ranked contender Andre “S.O.G.’’ Ward (19-0, 12 KOs) of Oakland, Calif.
“I am thrilled to be a part of this,” said King Arthur, who has just vacated his IBF Middleweight Title after ten successful defences. “It has always been my goal to fight against the world´s best fighters. This is like a dream coming true. Now I want to become the best fighter at super-middleweight.” His new stablemate Mikkel Kessler was equally delighted to participate in the impressive tournament. “It is an honour to participate and I look forward to making many big fights all over the world,” he said. “This will be a tremendous challenge but I am very confident of success.” Wilfried Sauerland was pleased to have two fighters in action in one of the most spectacular tournaments in the history of boxing. “I have been in this sport for over 30 years but I have never seen anything like this,” he said. “We cannot wait to get started.”
And Ken Hershman, Senior Vice President and General Manager, SHOWTIME Sports, who was instrumental in pulling the fighters, managers and promoters together, added: “The stars have truly aligned. It began as an intriguing concept, and through a tremendous amount of hard work on everyone’s part, we are going to pull off one of the most exciting events in boxing history. The 168-pound division is the most talent rich in boxing right now. And the Super Six tournament structure will deliver one compelling match-up after another.”
In another unprecedented occurrence, five of the world’s top boxing promoters have collaborated with SHOWTIME Sports to facilitate this epic tournament. Lou DiBella of DiBella Entertainment, Dan Goossen of Goossen Tutor Promotions, Mick Hennessy of Hennessy Sports, Wilfried and Kalle Sauerland of Sauerland Event, and Gary Shaw of Gary Shaw Productions, LLC will promote the tournament which begins in October 2009 and runs through spring 2011.
The dangerous and talented six fighters have signed on to fight any, and potentially all, of the five other contestants in the tournament. All bouts will be scheduled for 12 rounds. Froch’s WBC title and Kessler’s WBA championship will be on the line at the start of tournament competition.
In the first three Group Stages of the tournament, each fighter faces three different opponents over the next 12 months in a points-based competition.
Scoring will be as follows:
Win – 2 points (with a 1-point KO/TKO bonus)
Draw – 1 point
Loss – 0 points
Based on the point standings after the third Group Stage, the top four point scorers will advance to the Semi-Finals with the lowest two being eliminated. (In the event of a tie on points, a tie-break mechanism is in place)
The Semi-Finals will match the point leader against the fourth place fighter and the second versus the third. (In the event of a draw in the Semi-Final bouts, a tie-break mechanism is in place)
The winners of the respective Semi-Final bouts will advance to the Final, which will be contested in early 2011 for the inaugural Super Six World Boxing Classic trophy.
Fights will be contested on both American and European continents. Dates and venues will be announced in the coming weeks. Group Stage 1 matchups are as follows:
GROUP STAGE 1
CARL FROCH vs. ANDRE DIRRELL (for WBC World Championship)
JERMAIN TAYLOR vs. ARTHUR ABRAHAM
MIKKEL KESSLER vs. ANDRE WARD (for WBA World Championship)
Group Stage 2 and 3 matchups will be announced shortly.