Super Six World Boxing Classic

Taylor and Kessler withdrew during the tournament and were replaced by former light heavyweight champion Glen Johnson and super middleweight contender Allan Green.

The original format was based on a slate of six fighters who would compete throughout the group stage of the tournament, folding down to semi-final and final matches.

Although this unification was potentially jeopardized by the withdrawal of former WBC champion Mikkel Kessler and the non-tournament bout between WBA (Super) Champion Andre Ward and Sakio Bika which followed the withdrawal of Andre Dirrell, both titles remained in the mix following the end of the group stage.

As of August 12, 2010, a venue had not been chosen and ticket sales had not started for the scheduled September 25, 2010, bout between Dirrell and Ward.

[9] This resulted in a decision to have Ward fight Sakio Bika in a non-tournament bout, which created the possibility that the WBA Championship could have been removed from the tournament.

On September 6, 2010, the WBC vacated its Super Middleweight Championship, announced that Kessler will be the first contender when he returns from his injury (naming him Champion Emeritus), and announced that it would grant its championship to the winner of the upcoming Group Stage 3 match between its number one contender, Dirrell, and the WBA champion, Ward, to be followed with a mandated WBC title fight against the winner of the Froch-Abraham match.

On October 6, 2010, a Showtime press release confirmed that the WBC would grant its championship to the winner of the rescheduled Froch-Abraham match.

[15] On September 13, 2010, it was announced that Carl Froch was suffering from a back injury and would have to delay his fight with Arthur Abraham, which had been scheduled for October 2.

Original (2009) participants: Ward , Abraham , Froch , Taylor , Kessler , Dirrell (l. to r.). Not pictured are Johnson and Green , who replaced Taylor and Kessler in 2010's Group Stage 3.