Showtime's Super Six round-robin tournament, a rare example in boxing of managers and promoters putting aside their differences for the good of the sport, has been dealt a blow by the news that Jermain 'Bad Intentions' Taylor has pulled out of the tournament.
The 31-year old lost his first and only fight in the competition, a twelfth round KO to Arthur Abraham in Germany and was also on the receiving end of a quite stunning twelfth round stoppage to Britain's Carl Froch - who was losing on points at the time - in a pre-tournament fight back in April '09.
His withdrawal gives organisers a headache because the tournament now has an uneven number of fighters and points have already been awarded to Abraham on the back of his victory over Taylor.
Possible replacements have already been mentioned including the Australian Sakio 'The Scorpion' Bika who fights Allan Green on the 5 February, Green himself should he win that contest and Lucian Bute, the undefeated IBF title holder.
Whoever replaces him will, I suppose, start at the bottom of the table alongside fellow group stage 1 losers Andre Dirrel and Mikkel Kessler.
Kessler's fight against Carl Froch is set for April 17 in Copenhagen and promises to be the biggest bust-up since the world's politicians descended on the Danish capital for climate talks last year.
Taylor meanwhile has some rebuilding to do after four defeats in his last five outings including two demoralising reversals to Kelly Pavlik.
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