Organizers ‘postpone’ Australia ‘Superfighter’ event

By JE Grant

The Superfighter tournament scheduled for Dec. 2 in Melbourne, Australia was cancelled according to the event organizer Wednesday.

“It is with great regret that I announce the postponement of the Superfighter Pay-Per-View event scheduled for December 2nd in Melbourne and December 1st in the USA,” said Stephen Duval in a news release.

The originally scheduled cast of heavyweight participants was to include O’Neil Bell, Calvin Brock, Chris Byrd, Tye Fields, Juan Carlos Gomez, Oliver McCall, Jameel McCline and Samuel Peter.

Both Brock, who recently challenged Wladimir Klitschko for a share of the world title and Peter, who is scheduled to duel James Toney in a January 2007 rematch, pulled out as well. Further, unspecified visa problems made the tournament unsustainable according to Duval.

“Due to the withdrawal of Calvin Brock and Samuel Peter, and the visa/entry issues, the investors and management of Superfighter made what we believe to be the appropriate decision to postpone the event regardless of the significant monetary losses we are incurring,” said Duval.

As for the fighters, the loss of a possible $5 million payday is a significant setback.

Although the organizers hope to hold an event in “in the United States in early 2007” it has not been announced specifically when and where the tournament will take place.

Locations are still being contemplated.

“We are currently looking at a number of sites,” said Duval in an email response Thursday. “Ideally, Las Vegas would be the preferred location.”

Duval said a future tournament may include the contestants originally scheduled.

“All fighters currently contracted will be invited to participate, as it will be based in the US, the field is likely to be equal or better than the current line up scheduled in Melbourne,” he said.

The large purse will likely remain central to the organizers’ design.

“We were only interested in making certain that the best, most elite and exciting boxers were confirmed for Superfighter,” said Duval. “To do this, we offered a great incentive to attract the best fighters.”

According to Duval, in the longer term “the ultimate goal of Superfighter is to bring great boxing action to the fans, a great platform for the best boxers in the world to participate, innovative scoring and technology for the viewer and most of all, a great Superfighter World Series where fans see the eight original weight divisions of boxing annually under the Superfighter format.”

There are no plans to enter into the fray of world championship boxing promotions.

“Superfighter will not promote 12 round bouts apart from the Superfighter format where the winner fights a maximum of 12 rounds against three separate opponents,” said Duval.