THE SUPER SIX: A MODERN CLASSIC

TONY T. - Managing Editor, 3rd Year, Economics and Data Science

"I want to see a World Boxing Super Series at 115 pounds."

It’s often said that pugilism is dead. This idea is particularly spread around by fans of other martial arts competitions, like mixed martial arts, who point to boxing’s complex political structure. Given the plethora of major promoters, seventeen weight divisions, and roughly five top world championships per division, it really isn’t hard to see why cries of “the best don’t fight the best” have gained some ground in the last twenty years. To an extent, this concept has validity, as compared to the mid-80s and earlier, recent boxers fight less overall and thus fight less top competition. However, when prior eras had the sport dominated at times by crime syndicates and even then had numerous cases of dodging existing throughout, I don’t necessarily think the sport is currently in that terrible of a state. In fact, the numerous undisputed champions crowned in the last two years like Jermell Charlo, Josh Taylor, and Devin Haney seem to indicate boxing is at a relatively healthy state. As of this article’s writing, Inoue Naoya looks primed to join that group as well; as an individual unanimously rated amongst the sport’s top five fighters, pound for pound, the fact that someone like Inoue is striving to become undisputed is a very positive sign. However, no fighter better demonstrates the current trend like Canelo Álvarez, who in the span of twelve months managed to completely dominate and take over the super middleweight division as its first undisputed champion. Given the relative youth of the 168 pound weight class, having only existed in its current state since the late 1980s, this achievement has rightfully been considered extraordinary for this generation’s boxing fans.

Amidst all the press surrounding Canelo, though, I feel as though many forget perhaps the most important event in the division’s history, choosing to downplay it in favor of more recent achievements. Indeed, the Super Six World Boxing Classic was and still is one of the best tournaments in combat sports history and likely the critical point where the super middleweight crown transformed into something to actually be coveted. Conceived of by Showtime Boxing and spanning from 2009 to 2011, the Super Six tournament not only was crucial in their broadcast war against HBO sports, but also served as a means to get people interested in boxing. In fact, the tournament serves as one of my earliest memories of watching pugilism. Beyond even that, the tournament’s twists and turns are, in of itself, dynamic and worth rewatching as, in a narrative sense, it provided the drama and excitement that sports and bracket tournaments should deliver.

Having said all that, it’s funny to look in retrospect at the Super Six, given how many issues the organizers had to overcome when planning a long term series of boxing fights. The obvious thing to point to is how despite being advertised as a gathering of the world’s top six super middleweights, the tournament actually featured eight fighters. Another oddity was in how several of the pugilists were former champions from other weight classes who were moving into the 168 pound division without having competed there before. Finally, the prominent lack of Lucian Bute, then a long reigning IBF super middleweight titlist, somewhat diminished the reputation of the tournament at first, albeit in the long run Bute was probably hurt the most by not participating.

Without going too deeply into the Group Stage bouts, wherein the participants participated in a round robin, I find them particularly memorable for one individual. When one thinks of this tournament, they often think of eventual winner Andre Ward, given his eventual accession as the pound for pound king a few years following, or Carl Froch, with his display of extreme grit and willingness to overcome adversity. Yet, I think the most notable pugilist in the Group Stages was actually Mikkel Kessler, who entered the Boxing Classic as a reigning two time champion that had only previously lost in a unification fight to Joe Calzaghe. Even with Kessler’s loss in the first Group Stage to Andre Ward, then known simply for his gold medal at the 2004 Olympics, I find his performance in the round robin admirable. Specifically, Kessler’s dominant decision over Carl Froch seems to go relatively underrated, especially with the historical context of Froch’s subsequent bouts in mind. While I’d struggle to call Kessler’s entire body of work terribly convincing, the fact that the two people he fought against ended up being the finalists makes me sad that he had to pull out of the tournament due to injury.

Arthur Abraham was an interesting fighter in the early stages of the tournament. Having made ten title defenses of the IBF 160 pound title, one could assume in retrospect that he was highly favored in his move to 168 pounds. Yet, that opposition left a lot to be desired, and while Abraham ultimately did score a win against former undisputed middleweight champion Jermain Taylor in the first Group Stage, he ended up losing the rest of his fights in the tournament. Keeping Abraham’s subsequent WBO 168 pound title reigns in mind, as impressive as they are, his presence legitimized the tournament in my eyes because his limited success demonstrated the distinction between titleholders and actual bona fide champions. And to stretch this a bit, I could argue that this mere fact instilled a love of martial arts in my mind, by showing how even amongst expert pugilists, there is always something more they can learn. Beyond trying to fight the best fighters in the world in a truly competitive sense, then, I have to respect Arthur Abraham for the role he played in the Super Six.

Outside of those two along with the two eventual finalists, I have to gloss over the other participants in the Super Six World Boxing Classic. It isn’t as if they weren’t great fighters. Glen Johnson was a former 175 pound champion who had beat both Roy Jones Jr. and Antonio Tarver. Similarly, Jermain Taylor had once beat Bernard Hopkins twice to win the undisputed 160 pound championship. However, I feel as though both of them were past their peak, with both only fighting once in the tournament, which somewhat defied the original round robin concept of the Super Six. On that note, while Andre Dirrell was a decent fighter who had won a bronze medal at the same Olympics as Ward, he didn’t do much worth mentioning in the tournament. The same could be said for Allan Green, who was a replacement for Jermain Taylor after Taylor withdrew from the tournament.

Ultimately, the Super Six World Boxing Classic can, in a narrative sense, be narrowed down to the clash of two men: Andre Ward and Carl Froch. In their contrasting paths through the tournament and ultimately through their boxing careers, I think that they represent two equally present and admirable aspects to boxing.

Andre Ward was what one could call a “blue chip” prospect, having won Light Heavyweight Olympic Gold in Athens prior to a rather forgettable streak of 20 wins with no losses. While he held no title entering the Super Six, Ward seemed to embody a sort of Floyd Mayweather Jr. or Ricardo Lopez aura of mastery over pugilism, only dampered by promotional issues (which, frankly, continued to follow Ward for his entire career). Though Ward retired undefeated at 32-0 in 2017 as a unified 168 and 175 pound champion, his legacy is a bit strange given how he retired at his peak, at the moment he was considered the world’s top fighter. Thus, while it may sound a bit cheesy, Andre Ward is in my mind the very definition of a true master over the art of boxing. This is obviously heavily biased due to the Super Six introducing me to top level boxing, but Andre Ward represents to me what Floyd Mayweather Jr. might be to others. Even though his fights were often extremely boring, Ward was simply dominant throughout his entire career and displayed ludicrously high proficient boxing. Thus, it could be said that the Super Six, in a sense, served as a sort of coronation ceremony for Ward as boxing’s next top fighter as it gave him a platform to dominate.

Yet equally compelling was the other finalist, Carl Froch. Having suffered a defeat to Mikkel Kessler in the second Group Stage, Froch entered the tournament as the WBC 168 pound champion yet had to win back the title (vacated by Kessler after withdrawing) during later parts of the tournament. If Ward was the perfect fighter, Froch is anything but. Describing himself as something of an overachiever, Froch made a strong impression due to naturally playing the role of an underdog, staying competitive with willpower. In a sense, Andre Ward and Carl Froch’s dynamic in the finale of the Super Six World Boxing Classic was my Muhammad Ali vs. Joe Frazier, a perfect champion fighting against an unrelenting tough pugilist. While Froch ultimately lost, his later career more than expanded my respect for him. First annihilating Lucian Bute for his IBF super middleweight title and then winning a rematch against Mikkel Kessler, Froch’s two showcases against George Groves are perhaps some of the most entertaining fights I’ve seen. Today, Froch is something of a meme, given how he seems to remind everyone at every turn that he fought Groves in front of 80,000 at Wembley Stadium, but the Super Six World Boxing Classic and the subsequent fallout in the super middleweight division gave Froch a platform to display just how tough he was.

In this way, the Super Six World Boxing Classic is what I consider to be the quintessential combat sports tournament, strongly featuring staple dynamics that fictional media attempt to replicate with varying results. I don’t think it’s as strong as, say, the Pride 2000 Openweight Grand Prix tournament in mixed martial arts. Super Six is also not nearly as well produced or organized as the more modern World Boxing Super Series, which itself saw legendary moments like the dominant displays of Oleksandr Usyk, Inoue Naoya, and Josh Taylor in their respective Super Series. Yet, the Super Six World Boxing Classic set the foundation for what a modern boxing tournament with contests between the world’s top pugilists should look like. Its very existence allowed for Showtime to eventually outlast HBO in broadcasting boxing. Even with all of its faults, such as not featuring Lucian Bute or the rather disastrous results of trying to have six boxers in a round robin without any injuries, the Super Six World Boxing Classic showed me what top level boxing looked like. Both in a competitive and narrative sense, the Super Six was a perfect introduction to boxing for me, and as such it deserves far more attention given the resurgence of interest boxing has received in the past ten years. True to its name, it was a classic, yet it brought that golden age feeling into the modern day.