Ward needs a Froch win to legitimize Super Six

Ward need a Froch win to legitimize Super Six

Mark E. Ortega

Leave-it-in-the-ring.com

May 17, 2011

When the Super Six World Boxing Classic was first conceived at Showtime, the idea behind it was to crown more than just one star, and ultimately build the tournament champion into a crossover star that the network could champion in the coming years.

With last Saturday's lopsided victory over former middleweight kingpin Arthur Abraham in the books, and the second portion of the tournament final on the verge of being determined on June 4^th between WBC champion Carl Froch and 2005 “Ring Magazine Fighter of the Year” Glen Johnson, its an immaculate time to take a look at how things have progressed and where it could lead.

It's no secret to anyone that the Super Six has had it's peaks and troughs, just as you would suspect any innovation running for the first time would encounter. It's highs have been a couple of high profile bouts in a division that, until recently, has not seen many of those over its brief history.

Mikkel Kessler's razor-thin victory over Carl Froch contained the most excitement as the two fought it out in the center of the ring like it was a club fight rather than a technical one much to the delight of the fans. The round robin has seen a number of well promoted global events in Berlin, Nottingham, and Oakland with capacity crowds in attendance as well as a couple of shock results in the cases of Ward's one-sided win over Kessler for the WBA title and Andre Dirrell's dissection of an undefeated Abraham. As the tournament unfolds, however, one thing is for sure: Andre Ward has the best chance of emerging from the inaugural run of the Super Six as a major star.

So far, to his credit, Ward has done his part. While not necessarily in the most crowd-pleasing of ways, Ward has dominated a run of fighters that credential wise is unmatched by any other super middleweight today. Still, there are plenty of naysayers who question how well he would match up with IBF 168-pound champion Lucian Bute, who hangs in waiting for the winner of the tournament following the inking of his multi-fight deal with Showtime.

It is obvious to those who have covered Ward closely in the past few years that he strives for a challenge. Ward has made it clear that he wants to see Carl Froch in the tournament finals as that is the opponent who would better help establish himself as one of the sport's best young fighters.

In discussing the Froch-Johnson fight Saturday, Ward was concise in pointing out how Johnson got to the semi-finals.

“The thing about Johnson is we didn't get a chance to see how his body responded at 168 pounds simply because he fought a guy that he was comfortable with in Allan Green, a former sparring partner,” said Ward in the post-fight press conference. “That wasn't a torrid pace he fought at. It was a very casual pace and then he ended up catching Green behind the head. A lot of people said he looked great against Green and I don't take anything away from him, but we're gonna see how that weight loss really affects him when he fights Froch because it will be a higher pace fight against a guy who doesn't respect him as much as Green respected him, so we will see how he really looks in that fight.”

If Glen Johnson pulls off a miraculous upset over Froch, it sets up detractors of Ward and of the entire tournament up perfectly to tear them down. Put Johnson in the finals and Ward's run to super middleweight supremacy will have been against, in the opinion of the naysayers, the following fighters: A faded Mikkel Kessler traveling on the road, a never-was in Allan Green, a money grabbing Sakio Bika, an out of his weight Arthur Abraham, and a 70-year old Glen Johnson.

Not the fairest assessment but it is one you could expect to hear if that is how it plays out. All of that would be a moot point if Ward met Lucian Bute immediately following the wrap-up of the official finale, a fight that would be a fitting cap on this imaginative [in theory] idea that Showtime came up with nearly three years ago.

“I think its inevitable that me and Froch should have a showdown,” lamented Ward. “He's been calling for it, I think the fans here in the US want it, and the fans in Great Britain want it. I think that would be an action packed fight and it would be a live atmosphere in terms of fanfare.”

Ward is smart in knowing that the best way to finish would be against Froch, who has never been soundly beaten before and has quite an impressive run up to this point himself. He holds wins over current WBC 175-pound champion Jean Pascal, former undisputed middleweight champion Jermain Taylor and former middleweight titleholder Abraham, and an undefeated Andre Dirrell, albeit that one controversially. His one loss came in a give-and-take battle with Kessler, a fight many felt Froch deserved. All of these listed minus the Dirrell one were exciting or intriguing, often both. Froch would give Ward the best chance to shine against an all-action opponent. If Ward doesn't deliver a fun fight against Froch, it's doubtful that he ever will.

There has been a lot of talk following this weekend of Ward not being a fan friendly fighter. In the ring, this writer would have to agree with that statement. But it is the way Ward carries himself outside the ring and his mentality that should make him attractive to any fight fan, as well as those who don't follow the sport too closely.

Unlike some of the sport's previous pound-for-pound fighters, Ward seems intent on taking on all challenges without the aid of stipulations and determined to achieve greatness. He wants a Froch fight because he assumes it would be more difficult than a Johnson one, and more agreeable to the general public. Even early in his career, Ward battled with writers who failed to give him the credit he felt he deserved, and with each fight Ward doesn't ease off on his willingness to look for more and more challenges, including an opportunity down the line to pull a Roy Jones, Jr. and win the heavyweight championship.

Outside the ring, Ward has conducted himself with nothing but class. He's a good interview, so long as you give him something to work with question-wise. He doesn't seem like the type of fighter that will ever hold a fight up over catchweights or similarly silly stipulations that have come into play with the sport's elite over the past few decades.

The one caveat to Ward has been his promoter Goossen Tutor's unwillingness to bring Ward on the road. He has not fought out of his home state of California since 2007 with four of his last six coming in his home base of Oakland.

In beating Abraham, Ward proved he can handle hostile territory. The fight took place in Southern California's Carson at the Home Depot Center. The Armenian contingency was in full support of Abraham as the crowd was split 70-30 or so in favor of the German based fighter. Not only did Ward have the Armenians against him, but quite a number of loyal Southern Californians who would never willingly cheer on a Northern Californian like Ward.

Early in the fight Wards was experiencing problems with Abraham's aggressiveness and many in press row had him losing the first three rounds. Ward then proceeded to take the crowd out of the fight by picking apart the opposition and winning every remaining round except for maybe the twelfth. It wasn't exactly high drama but when you fight at the highest level the sport has to offer, winning nearly every round is an impressive feat.

“It was fun, it was a lot of fun,” said Ward in response to fighting a hostile crowd. “I look at one of my favorite fighters in Floyd Mayweather, he's 40-0, he's fought the best and in a lot of different circumstances. I watched his fight with Ricky Hatton when he fought in Las Vegas and I looked at his composure I looked at how he stayed the course even though it was a rugged fight, it was a tough fight early on. Literally everybody was against him and he found a way to get it done. I wasn't going to be deterred tonight by the Armenian flags, the German flags, I had a job to do. You gotta prove as a champion that you can win under many different circumstances. I know that I could perform under any circumstances but it was good to let the people know I could perform under circumstances like this.”

The Showtime contract states the tournament final will take place in the United States, which is a shame. This has been a worldwide event and if Ward and his team want to make a bigger star out of him, taking him to Nottingham to fight Froch would be the way to go. It obviously would not be the smartest mode as evidenced by Andre Dirrell's controversial loss to Froch in the first stage of the tournament would indicate.

But it would go a long way in establishing Ward as someone to champion as a boxing fan, disregarding his lack of an excitable fighting style. Ward's marketability lies within his eagerness to be great, and that is what will shine through when all is said and done.