I think it's far from dead, but I have been a bit disappointed so far, mainly by refereeing.

Taylor-Abraham was by far the best & unlike others I'm not sure Taylor is that shot. The only complaint I actually had here was the bullshit point deduction on Taylor, which arguably led him to opening up too much & getting stopped in search of a KO that was never going to come against Abraham.

Froch-Dirrell was a shit fight, characterized by excess holding from Dirrell & rabbit-punching & the odd judo move from Froch. Add to the fact Dirrell clearly won imo & you ended up with a controversy it could have done without. As if the judging wasn't bad enough & downright corrupt in the case of Massimo Barrovecchio giving the 11th to Froch, the referee Nestor Afu was also a hometown ref, taking a point for Dirrell for holding, but taking nothing from Froch for his rabbit-punches & hip throw.

Ward-Kessler was fairly judged imo, I didn't see a shutout, I thought Kessler took 2 of the 10 scored rounds, but it was dominant by Ward. Again the problem was the refereeing. Jack Reiss allowed Ward to get away with everything, which in his case included punching in the clinch, holding his left arm out rather than jabbing, ducking low, charging in like a bull in Pamplona & of course excessive clinching. Reiss saying 'let him go Mikkel' rather than breaking them up gave Ward a big advantage because it gave him time to land punches as Kessler let go because of his superior handspeed. I don't think Kessler would have won without it, but I do think it changed the fight somewhat.

Still, I think the 2nd round is good. I see Kessler beating Froch, whilst I don't think either Taylor or Dirrell can be counted out against Ward or Abraham just because the style matchups are good & ideally all the fighters who lost in the first round would win in the second.

It's still great for boxing & the fact that Fenster has no said that it's impossible for all 3 to win, now leads me to believe that Kessler, Dirrell & Taylor will all be victorious. Fact