Andre Dirrell and Arthur Abraham spent most of Saturday night engaged in a compelling fight in Detroit, part of the second round of the World Boxing Classic.
Dirrell peppered his opponent throughout a round, racking up points as the clock melted away, while Abraham kept looking for one big blow that would turn the bout around.
It was the quintessential boxer-versus-puncher matchup.
Then in the 11th, Dirrell slipped on some water in a corner and went down to a knee, and Abraham unleashed a brutal hook that laid him out. Supporters of both fighters cascaded into the ring at Joe Louis Arena as the scene nearly turned to pandemonium, and Dirrell eventually spent about three hours in the hospital before being released.
It was a microcosm of the tournament, which generated widespread praise when it was revealed last year only to struggle with the follow-through. And a microcosm of boxing, which finally came up with a novel idea only to have it beset by trouble.
“At least this tournament is not a series of independent transactions,” Lou DiBella said on Tuesday, during a meeting of the promoters involved in the event. “There’s a plan, there’s a structure. It’s attempting to do something new that has some kind of long-term view.
“So often it seems that we stick our foot out and we aim at it and we shoot it,” he said. “And that’s the way this industry behaves, and conducts itself, and at least this tournament is a step in the right direction. It’s a step forward instead of shooting ourselves in the foot.”
The tournament was designed to guarantee six of the best super middleweight (76.2kg) boxers in the world three fights each, with points awarded based upon the outcome. The four participants with the most points would advance to seeded semi-finals, with a championship bout next year.
The setup was lauded for pitting the best against the best, rather than the gross mismatches. The tournament also cut through the clutter, doing away with the myriad of alphabet sanctioning bodies and paper champions that have made the sport difficult to follow for even the most ardent of fans.
Six fighters began, one will have his arm raised at the end.
“You owe it to the fans to give them a good show, from top to bottom, not pure [crap] to make more money for yourself,” promoter Gary Shaw said, his voice rising. “That’s wrong.”
The first three fights in the tournament went relatively smoothly, all of them were thrilling in their own way.
Then things began to unravel, with Jermain Taylor backing out of the modified round-robin event following his brutal knockout loss. An injury to Andre Ward has forced a second-round fight to be repeatedly delayed, and promoters have struggled to agree on sites for several of the predetermined bouts.
A five-week window for the first series of bouts has grown to a nearly three-month window for the second series.
And all the while, public interest has waned.
“It’s a challenge to keep the momentum. We had a few injuries that led to some delays, but there are going to be some ebbs and flows in interest,” said Ken Hershman, the Showtime exec who put the tournament together. “We’re on pace to conclude when we expected.”
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