NEW YORK (AP) - When television executive Ken Hershman began putting together an ambitious, six-man super middleweight tournament earlier this year, the idea was to crown a single champion in one of the deepest divisions in boxing.
As the first bell rings on the hotly anticipated event Saturday night, Hershman is reminding fans and fighters alike that it's not a team event.
Hershman's going out of his way to say that because three former U.S. Olympians will meet a trio of Europeans in the first round, which begins with a doubleheader in Europe. Jermain Taylor will fight former middleweight standout Arthur Abraham in Berlin, before Olympic bronze medalist Andre Dirrell challenges WBC champion Carl Froch in his hometown of Nottingham, England.
The other opening match will feature former Olympic gold medalist Andre Ward against WBA champion Mikkel Kessler on Nov. 21 in Oakland, Calif.
"We wanted six of the best to fight each other, and wherever they're from, they're from," said Hershman, who runs boxing for Showtime, which will air the entire tournament.
"I do think there's a natural inclination to make this more territorial," he added. "I'm seeing that among the fight teams and the fans."
The modified round-robin tournament continues with a second group stage beginning in January, with a final group stage running into the fall. Fighters can earn two points for a victory, a bonus point for a knockout, and one point for a draw, with the four who accumulate the most points advancing to single-elimination semifinals.
The tournament is expected to conclude in 2011 - assuming all the fighters stay with it.
Boxing tournaments are notoriously difficult to hold together, especially over 18 months, but Hershman believes pride might be enough to keep this one intact. During numerous publicity junkets, each fighter has proclaimed himself either the favorite or the darkhorse, and made it clear that they have something to prove.
Kessler (42-1, 32 KOs) is trying to improve his stock in the U.S., where one of the tournament's heavy favorites is unknown to just about everyone besides hardcore fight fans.
The same goes for Froch (25-0, 20 KOs), who began to build a name for himself on this side of the Atlantic by knocking out Taylor earlier this year, and Abraham (30-0, 24 KOs), is moving up to 168 pounds for the first time.
The three Americans each have their own goals. Dirrell (18-0, 13 KOs) and Ward (20-0, 13 KOs) are still establishing themselves as professionals, while Taylor (28-3-1, 17 KOs) is trying to prove he's still among the best in the sport after three losses in his last four fights.
"It's been a long two years, it's been a lot of rejection, a lot of people forgetting who I am," Taylor said. "They've been the hardest two years of my life.
"When I first came out and I was on top of the world, I never had a doubt, no doubt in the world. Now it's like, I'm at the lowest point I can go, so there's nowhere to go but up."
Taylor has acted like a respected veteran during the leadup to the opening round of bouts, glowingly discussing just about everybody in the tournament and offering nothing but respect for Abraham, his Armenian, Germany-based opponent.
The same can't be said of Dirrell and Froch.
The two have been sparring through news releases for weeks, including one heated conference call in which they spent so much time arguing with each other that they forgot to answer questions from the media.
"There's no animosity," Dirrell said, laughing. "I don't let nothing outside the ring affect me inside the ring. Most of the time I have a smile on my face."
Dirrell leaves everything outside the ring to his promoter, Gary Shaw, who has been one of the major impetuses behind the U.S. vs. Europe storyline. He'll be busy getting Dirrell ready for his fight while Taylor-Abraham is going on, but admitted he may try to find the broadcast truck and find out how his fellow American is faring.
"I had that sense, when I heard about the tournament, and when it was being put together, that it would become us against them," Shaw said. "Truly, although it's an individual sport, we're at the big-time, Olympics, professional level.
"It reminds me of a NASCAR race. Right now we're in the pits, there's some interest, everybody's looking, the fans are in the stands, and we're getting ready to start our engines," Shaw added. "That's when everybody is going to start paying attention."