Dirrell withdraws from Ward fight, might be out of Super 6

[Kev]

This is a real shame for Showtime. They were very brave in trying to bring something good and new to boxing, and we did have some great fights.

I guess they will learn from this though and next time not bother with a pointless 3 fight round 1 which goes on for two years and eliminates only 2 fighters.

8 fighters knockout would have been more sustainable.

But don't be too quick to knock it, at least they took a chance and tried to create something exciting.

And it did bring some clarity to the division. We know that Andre Ward is a force now. Maybe Abraham and Froch can fight each other and Ward fights Bute, with the winners facing off? That would be a great conclusion.

[Spicoli]

Have to ask....did Direll complain of chest pains prior

[Mar]

Very disappointing. This tourny was such a great great idea and these prissy boxers i agree have fucked it all up. Between everyone crying about every outcome of every fight to froch crying about pulling out to direll actually pulling out. Kesslers eye.....man they just don't make those rock hard guys anymore like they used to. I'm sure i'm not the only one that never said it aloud but really never thought these two would fight. Props to froch and abraham for sticking with it. I respect them both a whole lot more. Ward as well, but i do belive he should have had to fight on the road like the rest of the guys. This sport is frustrating. This is boxing....so why do we see so little of it from these top guys. Thank god for football.......

[Kel]

Have to ask....did Direll complain of chest pains prior

Vaginal

[Hulk]

Well this sucks my penis please

[Rantcatrat]

wow. that sucks for the tournament.

i think i'm the only person here that liked the idea of having a tournament where one loss doesn't eliminate you. i guess that at the end of the day, it is too difficult to pull off. its a bummer, i wonder if the froch/abraham fight will go on as planned.

[Rantcatrat]

on another note, showtime could just have ward, froch and abraham continue regardless and have the winner of the green/johnson fight be the last spot for the semi-finals although i don't really see the point of another green/ward fight.

does anyone know what the injury was? duck job?

[Master]

Yes just make it straight knock out. I got a feeling these two are friends and do not want to fight.

[Cressa121]

This is a shame, I was looking forward to this fight and thought Dirrell had a great chance of winning it. Hopefully this won't impact the Froch-Abraham fight, and I give those 2 and Ward credit for at least fighting 3 fights in the tourney. It was a great idea, but with all the posturing and fighter withdrawals its unfortunately turned into a joke

[JohnnyKickAss]

Yes just make it straight knock out. I got a feeling these two are friends and do not want to fight.

Came to my mind too...

[MMASUX]

does anyone know what the injury was? duck job?[/QUOTE]

They are saying it's neurological problems, from the Abraham fight. Here is the article

Andre Dirrell out of Super Six as career in jeopardy - ESPN

[armin]

Lawson said that Dirrell's symptoms of "headaches and dizziness" began shortly after his March fight against Arthur Abraham in Group Stage 2 of the modified round-robin tournament.

"We took him to a doctor and then a neurologist. When we took him to the neurologist, he was alarmed. He said Andre wasn't fit to fight right now. Before he would even consider letting him fight, he would need three months symptom-free. It would get to the point where Andre would have to sit down. He couldn't lay down because [the symptoms] would get worse."

Hmm not saying this isn't true, but to just now come public with it, 6 months later I think he just doesn't want to get in the ring with ward and yes the tournament has pretty much fallen apart. I mean half the original field is out, and before it's all said and done who's to say another fighter won't go down to injury. Should have been a 8 man tourney 4 fights the first night, 2 fights 3 months later and then a final a month later, wrap it all up in less than a year. Kind of losing interest in it, and now ward is probably going to have some meaningless non tourney fight against some less than stellar competition while froch and abraham destroy each other...

[amat]

Well at first this sounds so disappointing but if a brain doctor is saying that he's not fit, then I think we should all take this seriously. If they are saying his entire career is in peril, that isn't something like a back injury which maybe fighters have faked in the past. I don't know, wait before we judge. Imagine for a minute that he wasn't faking against Abraham and that spasming and no memory thing was real, this could be bad.

[Fenster]

wow. that sucks for the tournament.

i think i'm the only person here that liked the idea of having a tournament where one loss doesn't eliminate you. i guess that at the end of the day, it is too difficult to pull off. its a bummer, i wonder if the froch/abraham fight will go on as planned.

You've finally got it

[amat]

Even if the Super 8 (and counting...) doesn't come to completion, look at the division rankings before the tournament and after. They're completely different, it gave us at least 5 matchups of top 10 super middleweights facing each other. That's pretty cool.