George Foreman was at the Soho Grand Hotel in Manhattan on Monday announcing a special one-night elimination tournament featuring eight world class heavyweights, who will battle each other in three fights of four rounds each in one exciting evening…for $5 million dollars! The event is expected to be held at the Rod Laver Arena in Melbourne, Australia in October or November. The pay-per-view event has signed heavyweights O’Neil Bell, Shannon Briggs, Chris Byrd, Steve Cunningham, Alexander Dimitrenko, Ty Fields and Samuel Peter. An eighth spot is open and top-rated heavyweights are invited to contact the promoter. A second show is planned in Manhattan in May, 2007, featuring eight world-rated middleweights.
Foreman, who will be joining broadcast partner Colonel Bob Sheridan at ringside, said at the announcement, “Everybody says boxing needs something… (the tournament) is a chance to do something different.” Foreman later joked, “I would have beat Muhammad (Ali) if it had been four rounds.”
The show will introduce a new scoring system, call time for instant replays and use eight high-definition cameras to capture the action for the pay-per-view audience. (More to follow.)
“The pay-per-view event has signed heavyweights O’Neil Bell, Shannon Briggs, Chris Byrd, Steve Cunningham, Alexander Dimitrenko, Ty Fields and Samuel Peter.”
It’s 5 Million dollars for 4 round fights so I don’t see why any fighter would be against it.
Well Oneil Bell and Cunningham are both Cruisers. Ty Fields is not very good, huge, but not very good. And Dimitrenko I have never heard of. So 3 good HWs are signed in Peter, Byrd and Briggs. Still I must say those are better fighters than I ever thought would go for something like this. What if that crazy bastard Oneil Bell won it all? ;D Him and Sam Peter would be freakin Brutal. Overall If I had to pick one guy out of those fighters to win, my money would be on Shannon Briggs. Dude can box, and in 4 round bouts his stamina problems would never come into play.
Sounds awesome, would be better if it was six rounds though.
If this idea was kept and developed year after year, this could be amazing for boxing.
Anyway my moneys on Sam Peter for this. He can go flat out for four round and knock the stuffing out of these guys. I would of been torn between him and Oneil Bell, but Oneil gets started so late in 12 rounders, will he be able to get his motor going in a 4 rounder?
I think tihs is a good concept but I just wish all the major belt holders were going to be in it. I wonder since its 4 rounds if the a loss goes on there perminant record. If thats the case then I bet allot of the top guys wont do this. Anyone know?
Okay, I’ve got to say that although some of the boxing purists might quibble about the length of the rounds and technical bits like whether it goes on the permanent record or not, I think it is a great thing for the heavyweight division, which hasn’t exactly left lay-fans like me panting in anticipation or excitement at a fight, but this does sound ace.
It will give people a benchmark, though obviously not a be-all and end-all benchmark, as to where some of the top fighters, and the lesser names stand in relation to each other, and any upsets in there would boost that boxer’s profile no end, and lead to calls for a title shot if they won the tourny.
At last something worth looking forward to in the heavyweight division!
sounds like a wwe style joke to me, as if the heavyweight division isn’t geting enough stick they now plan this as a comeback, 4 rounds, time outs for replays, 3 fights in one night
Well I do remember this stupid show bout 5 or 6 years back called “ThunderBox” and it was the shittest thing I had ever seen. From what I gathered Tim Witherspoon did quite well in it though.
4 rounds will serve the sluggers like Peter well. He doesn’t need stamina in this thing. For four rounds he can just flail his arms like a wild man and hope something lands