Froch tops on the trouble for Showtime’s Super Six by backing out of Abraham bout
BoxingScene.com confirmed today that super middleweight Carl Froch will withdraw from his upcoming fight with Arthur Abraham on October 2 due to a back injury. Froch did not appear for a scheduled press conference today. Instead his promoter, Mick Hennessey, informed Showtime and Sauerland Event, who promotes Abraham, that Froch was injured, and would need some weeks to recover.
Rick Reeno of BoxingScene said that Sauerland Event is already working to reschedule the bout for November or December. The date must work for both fighters, Showtime, the German network ARD and the venue in Monaco. For these reasons, the date may be difficult to set.
Froch’s back injury is the latest blow in the third stage of Showtime’s Super Six Boxing Classic. The tournament has done much to revitalize boxing and excite fans, but ran into difficulty early on when original contestant, Jermaine Taylor, dropped out after being knocked out by Arthur Abraham. He was replaced by Allan Green, who recently was scratched out of the tournament after Mikkel Kessler withdrew and vacated his WBC super middleweight crown due to a longstanding eye injury.
Kessler’s withdrawal in the third stage meant that there was an uneven amount of fighters remaining. Showtime deemed that the easiest way to solve this dilemma was to drop Green from the competition (he held had the least points of all contenders) and follow through with a quarterfinal stage. Green’s promoter, Lou Dibella, stated that he hopes that Showtime will compensate Green in some way. But the company is already miring in the compensation business after having guaranteed Kessler a bout with the winner of the tournament.
Aside from these complicated logistics, an upcoming bout between Andre Dirrell and Andre Ward is also expected to be pushed back, as an American venue has yet to be found for the September 25 date. In the event of a setback, the promoters of Dirrell and Ward could face legal repercussions for the breaching of a contract with Showtime.
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