A Look into the Past, Present, and Future of The: Super Middleweight Division

I will be writing a segment of every (or at least most of them) division in Boxing and giving hardcore fans, and casual fans a look into what is going on in the division. Who are contenders, pretenders, etc. Because I know if you wake up one day and say, "I want to follow Boxing and become a fan," I know that it maybe a little overwhelming at times because there are quite a few divisions, and different titles.

This is my fourth installment as I work my way down we get to the 168 pound division, the Super Middleweight Division, and at the moment it is one of the deepest division's in all of Boxing. Also, the Super Middleweight division, with the help of Showtime we have Boxing fans get a unique tournament called "The Super 6" where the best fight the best in a unique tournament style format. I will get more into that a bit later, but let's take a look into the past of the Super Middleweight division.

In 1984, that is really where the Super Middleweight division was created. That is when the U.K. fighter Murray Sutherland beat Ernie Singletary by a UD in a 15 round championship fight for the IBF belt. For being a very young division we have seen some great fights along with some good to ATG fighters. Such as Nigel Benn, Chris Eubank, Robin Reid, Steve Collins, Sven Ottke, and the recently retired Joe Calzaghe. Great fights you may want to look up is Steve Collins-Chris Eubank I and II. The first one is a classic that Steve Collins wins by UD. Eubank was dropped in the 8th, and Collins was dropped in the 10th. In the 2nd fight it is another classic back and forth fight with Collins pulling off the fight with a SD victory. In 1993 we get an epic fight between Chris Eubank-Nigel Benn II at Super Middleweight. It is a massive crowd with 42,000 watching this epic, back-and-forth fight between two All Time Greats. The fight was for the WBC and WBO Super Middleweight belts with the result being a Draw.

The two most accomplished Super Middleweights of All Time are Joe Calzaghe and Sven Ottke. Sven Ottke though usually isn't really high on anybody's All TIme greats at Super Middleweight because he got quite a bit of decisions in his favor. Sven Ottke had decent talent and retired with an undefeated record and made 21 defense of World Title Championships, but he never left his home country of Germany (and Germany is know for having very very very poor decisions though out the years) and Sven Okke fights pretty much damaged Germany's rep. Like I said he was a decent fighter, but nothing really great. So, if you look at top 10 SMW of all time and he isn't on there, there's a big reason for that. Joe Calzaghe on the other hand was a great fighter and was very talented. His resume is a bit thin, but due to that is the division at the time was pretty thin, but he beat everybody he had to and some of them he was massive underdogs in. Such as the Lacy, and Kessler fights. Lacy, at the time, was dubbed as the "next Mike Tyson" of the Super Middleweight division, but Calzaghe dominated him from the start of the bell to the end. Then he fought and beat Sakio Bika a very good fighter who some say should have been invited to the Super 6 tournament, and then he dominated Mikkel Kessler, who is in the Super 6. Then when we flash back to 1997 he won his first World TItle, the WBO, and beat Chris Eubank. So, Joe Calzaghe is easily the best SMW of all time, at the moment.

Now, let's talk about the present, and as I said up top. This is a LOADED division, and we got the Super 6 tournament going on. The rules of the tournament, just in case you don't know yet, there are three Group Stages of the tournament, each fighter faces three different opponents in a points-based competition. The scoring is a Win=2 points, Draw=1, Lose=0 and if you KO your opponent you get an extra point so, for example, Arthur Abraham KO'd Jermain Taylor so he got 2 points fo the win and since he got a KO he ended up with 3 points and he is the tourney leader right now, and based on the point standings after the third Group Stage, the top four point scorers will advance to the Semi-Finals with the lowest two being eliminated. (In the event of a tie on points, a tie-break mechanism is in place) The Semi-Finals will be 4 vs 1 and 3 vs 2 and whoever wins fights in the FInals for a winner take all fight. So, now that you know the rules the Super 6 fighters that are in the tourney is (the records are based, and titles are based BEFORE the first stage fights) WBC champ Carl Froch (25-0-0, 20 KO's), WBA champ Mikkel Kessler (42-1-0, 32 KO's) Andre Ward (20-0-0, 13 KO's) Andre Dirrell (18-0-0, 13 KO's) Arthur Abraham (30-0-0, 24 KO's) and Jermain Taylor (28-3-1, 17 KO's) Now, as I said these were the records before the first stage fights. We had Carl Froch defeat Andre Dirrell by SD, Andre Ward defeated Mikkel Kessler by Technical Decision, and Arthur Abraham KO'd Jermain Taylor. So, as of now, Abraham is the points leader with 3 points and 2 and 3 are Carl Froch, and Andre Ward with 2 points. Before the tournament started fans wondered "what would happen if somebody dropped out?" Well, we got our answer, Jermain Taylor decided to drop out of the tournament because of health reasons, and Allen Green (29-1-0, 20 KO's) has stepped in to replace Jermain Taylor. Now, Stage 2 of the Super 6 will resume on March 27th with Arthur Abraham taking on Andre Dirrell. Then on April 24th Carl Froch will go to Denmark and take on Mikkel Kessler, and Andre Ward will take on Allen Green.

It is a very exciting time in the Super Middleweight division with the Super 6 going on, and we haven't even talked about the "other" fighters in the division. Lucian Bute (25-0-0, 20 KO's) he is one of the fighters that fans would have liked to have been in the tournament, but there are just so many spots that you can't please everybody. Bute hold the IBF belt right now, Robert Stieglitz (37-2-0, 23 KO's) who holds the WBO belt, and Sakio Bika (28-3-2, 19 KO's) holds the somewhat majorish belt in the IBO. Then we have the non belt holders, Librado Andrade (28-3-0, 21 KO's) gave Lucian Bute a tough time the first time they fought, and Bute barely survived. They fought for a 2nd time, and Bute did the impossible and KO'd Andrade with a beautiful body shot. Then Edison Miranda (33-4-0, 29 KO's) is one of the hardest punchers in the division and has been a very good fighter at Middleweight, and now at Super Middleweight. Miranda and Bute are scheduled to fight on April 17th in what should be a great fight. Then we got Jesse Brinkley (35-5-0, 22 KO's) he has been on fire lately winning 9 straight beating fights such as Joey Gilbert, Mike Paschall, and as recently beating Curtis Stevens. Beating Stevens h is now the number 2 rated by the IBF. So, more then likely his next fight is against Bute-Miranda whoever wins that fight.

With all that said, the Super Middleweight division is on fire and is really "super" at the moment. We are in an exciting time and a very historic time with SMW division. It really isn't a division to miss fights in because every fight you see on TV is usually a great fighter against another great fighter, especially, the Super 6 every fight is a pick 'em fight. I hope you have enjoyed reading this as much as I enjoyed typing about this great division. Next up is 160, the Middleweight division.