A nasty rumor has been gaining traction around message boards and media that Andre Dirrell and Andre Ward will not face off as scheduled in Stage 3 of the Super Six World Boxing tournament.
The fight is scheduled to take place on September 25th for Ward’s WBA super-middleweight title. But just weeks before the event there has been no press conferences or venue announcement.
Writer Hector Linares broke the news today through Boxing Talk but didn’t elaborate on the reason for the cancellation. However, the news is contradicted by a recent Andre Ward interview where he states he’s currently in training for the showdown.
“At the moment I’m doing what I always do. I’m doing my strength work,” Ward explained to AOL Fanhouse regarding his preparation. “I’m doing my conditioning work and I’m always in the gym working on refining my skills. So, we’re doing what we’ve always been doing, which is just putting in the work from day-to-day.”
So far the Super Six tournament has seen upsets (Ward-Kessler), controversial decisions (Dirrell-Froch, Dirrell-Abraham) and fighter withdrawals (Jermain Taylor).
At press time, neither fighter has commented on the rumors.
Beats, Boxing and Mayhem will follow this story as it develops.
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If there was one flaw with the Super Six, it’s simply the fact that it runs for two years. That time frame is long enough to create squabbles over money along with issues with each fighter’s promoter and the alphabet organizations (WBC,WBA,IBF etc.). With that said, I still call BS on this story.
Showtime reportedly has each fighter locked into iron-clad contracts for the Round Robin-styled tournament. None of them could break the agreement without serious financial ramifications and ostracizing himself from one of only two big cable boxing outlets in the country.
Obviously something is up. But more than likely it’s just difficulty securing an agreeable venue for the fight. Carl Froch has expressed concern on that matter regarding his next fight with Arthur Abraham.
In my opinion, the tournament has already been a success. No other division has had so many top fighters face each other back to back. Hopefully tournaments, whether round-robin or elimination style, get utilized more in the future.
Beats, Boxing and Mayhem 