Carl Froch and Mikkel Kessler are both raring to get thing underway with the new boxing tournament that will give them a platform on which to prove who the best super middleweight is and it’s live on TV to boot.
Showtime’s Super Six World Boxing Classic, which will be aired on new channel Primetime as a pay-per-view event, will pit six of the top ten super middleweights against each other to see who really is the greatest. As if that wasn’t enough it also sets up a mouth-watering bout between WBC champion Carl Froch and his WBA counterpart Mikkel Kessler, both of whom will have their titles on the line.
Having failed to set up a deal to fight each other due to governing body rules and mandatory challengers, Kessler and Froch will finally meet in their second fight of the Super Six and both had nothing but praise for the format that allowed the two greats to meet.
“This is what I want. Me and Carl are both world champions and we put up our belts to show the people that we are the best fighters in the world. We are going to fight the best fighters in the super middleweight division,” said Kessler, whose only defeat was on a close points decision to Joe Calzaghe.
“It’s a big opportunity for us all and I’m looking forward to fighting Carl,” he added gleefully.
Froch was more sombre in his view of the tournament and knows this is his chance to make a household name for himself despite coming through two wars with Jean Pascal and Jermain Taylor
“[I’ve] not had anything easy. I fought Jean Pascal for the title. People ask ‘Who is Jean Pascal? Who is this guy’, so it wasn’t taken that seriously, but Jean Pascal is now the WBC light heavyweight champion of the world since losing to me. So that’s who Jean Pascal is.
“And Jermain Taylor, everybody knows who he is, and we all saw that dramatic and epic battle for 12 rounds where I had to pull that finish out of the bag in the last round and the magnitude of that performance speaks for itself.
“I’m looking forward to getting the ball rolling with this tournament…and I’m really excited that Primetime have actually took this competition and hopefully we can excel with Primetime and take boxing to a whole knew level,” said Froch, who faces American Andre Dirrell in the opening fight of the competition on October 17.
The Super Six World Boxing Classic will see each of the six boxers, Froch, Kessler, Andre Dirrell, Andre Ward, Arthur Abraham and Jermain Taylor, fight three different opponents chosen at random. The boxers will accumulate points from each fight; two points for a win, one for a draw and nothing for a loss. A further incentive is an extra point if you win by knockout. The four highest scoring fighters will make the semi-final and the two winners will meet in the final to see who will be crowned the super middleweight champion.
