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October 29 was going to be the big night for the Super Middleweight division, for Showtime Boxing, for the Super Six tournament that started two years ago, with undefeated Andre Ward (24-0), an Olympic Gold Medalist and the WBA Super Middleweight champion, facing the WBC champions, 34 year old British fighter, Carl Froch (28-1). Well, as of Thursday night, the fight will be postponed, with Ward tweeting about an injury he sustained during sparring.
As Ward tweeted, he got a deep cut during sparring and needed 7 stitches. He also announced that he will let everybody know about the new date for the fight very soon. And that has gotten promoters, especially Froch’s promoter, Eddie Hearn, rather angry.
As Hearn put it – All we can go on is the news given by Andre Ward, and he was very unprofessional to do so in that manner. His promoters will be fuming at the way he delivered that message. We’re not happy, we don’t believe it and won’t believe it until we see the cut.
Hearn suggested that a cut that needs 7 stitches couldn’t have come from sparring – Cuts can happen, it’s unusual that cuts that size happen in sparring and it’s unusual to be sparring that late at night. According to Hearn, Ward might be trying to pull some maneuvering tactic out of the fight, or at least delay it – I think he knows Carl Froch is going to take him to places he’s never been before, and does he really fancy that? He’s a bit of a golden boy in America, his back’s never been against the wall.
I wouldn’t say Ward is lying, but something is a bit fishy in the Bay Area kingdom. A 7 stitch cut from sparring, near midnight? Who knows. What we do know is what we see, and there’s a good chance that the footage will soon come up. Showtime usually run documentary shows to promote big fights, something Hearn is counting on – Showtime run very tight documentary series on fights like these. There’s probably camera crews outside his house, waiting to see this alleged cut.
Ward is the undefeated champion, but he looked mighty unimpressive during his last fight with Arthur Abraham, despite the lopsided unanimous decision. He didn’t really put an effort, doing just enough to win the fight, which wasn’t that hard. Froch has fought everyone the last three years, except for Ward, beating Jean Pascal, Jermain Taylor, Andre Dirrell, Mikkel Kessler, Arthur Abraham and Glen Johnson. He lost to Kessler, a fight Ward won after Kessler’s face was too cut up (due to unintentional headbutting from Ward).
I’m pretty sure more will be revealed this weekend and this coming week about the nature of Ward’s injury, how severe it really is and probably the most important thing – when this Super Six final will actually happen.
One response to “Andre Ward Trying to Duck Carl Froch?”
[…] Andre Ward Trying to Duck Carl Froch?SportigeOctober 29 was going to be the big night for the Super Middleweight division, for Showtime Boxing, for the Super Six tournament that started two years ago, with undefeated Andre Ward (24-0), an Olympic Gold Medalist and the WBA Super Middleweight …Carl Froch super-middleweight unification fight with Andre Ward postponed …Telegraph.co.ukAndre Ward Suffers Cut, Super Six Finals Delayed, Hearns Says Ward's DuckingBleacher ReportWard suffers cut, delays Froch showdownAFPSan Jose Mercury News -BoxingNews24.com -Crave Online (blog)all 177 news articles » […]