Al Bernstein On Boxing: Doing Something That’s Never Been Done

ByAl Bernstein

I am off to England for the opening weekend of the Super Six World Boxing Classic and the gravity of the moment is hitting me, as it is everyone else associated with this rather grand event.

Without overstating the case, this is a pretty significant undertaking. What makes it even more so is the fact that this is something that has never been done. Very seldom can you say you are participating in something in a sport that has not been done.

As this “World Cup” type tourney begins, it is thrusting boxers, promoters, TV executives, sportscasters and fans into some uncharted territory. There have been tournaments in boxing before, but none with this format, none that stretched this long and none that had such logistical challenges.

Six boxers will; be bound together for months, facing each other and no one else. They will be scouting future opponents and preparing for their own battles at the same time. They will know what lies ahead of them and have to carefully plan what they do in the ring so they can keep winning, remain injury free and have enough in the tank to get through five matches against top competition over the next 18-24 months to win this tourney.

One of the intriguing aspects of this is that most fighters don’t fight that many matches in a row against the best men in their division. Recent examples of tough schedules for fighters are revealing when compared to this super middleweight task. Take Erik Morales, who within a 24 month period fought super featherweights Manny Pacquiao three times and Marco Antonio Barrera once. He was 1-3 in those fights.

In the 1999-2000 calendar years, Oscar De La Hoya took on the best welterweights available to him; Ike Quartey, Felix Trinidad and Shane Mosley. He went 1-2. More recently from 2006-2008, Miguel Cotto, within the welterweight division, battled Zab Judah, Shane Mosley, Antonio Margarito and Joshua Clottey. Despite a 3-1 record in that group of fights, we know it took a toll on Cotto—though part of that toll may have come courtesy of the “extra powerful” gloves of Margarito.

Those schedules are comparable to this Super Six schedule except in each case, that was less than the five bouts one must fight to win this tourney. For Mikkel Kessler, Arthur Abraham, Jermain Taylor, Carl Froch, Andre Dirrell and Andre Ward, this is a daunting task. For four of them, the journey starts this weekend.

I started my broadcasting career almost 30 years ago by announcing several single elimination tournaments in the Top Rank Boxing series on ESPN. Tourneys were held in several weight divisions for up and coming boxers. The winner was promised a chance at a world title, and those competitions produced several excellent fighters including Dwight Muhammad Qawi (then known as Dwight Braxton). Those tournaments were interesting and exciting, but clearly they were fought on a different level than the Super Six and they were single elimination.

I have been involved with many important single events in boxing, but this has a unique element to me. That element is the unknown. We just don’t know what will happen over the long haul. Who will overachieve, who will be cut, who will be knocked out to make a quick comeback in the next fight difficult, but necessary.

There are 15 more ways to phrase questions about the results of this tourney as it goes along. Nothing is perfect and this tournament will not be.

There will probably be moments of controversy, and somewhere along the line there could be some confusion, someone will probably be distressed about a decision or some aspect of the tourney, and it’s possible some fights will not live up to expectations.

But, even if some of that, or all of it, occurs, this tourney will still be worth experiencing. There will be a number of good matches, there will be drama, and boxing will get a lot of attention.

I can’t wait to kick it off this weekend and see what happens.