Froch vs Taylor

By Michael Payne: On 25th of April WBC super middleweight king Carl Froch (24 – 0, 19 KOs) faces his toughest fight to date taking on the number 1 contender Jermain Taylor (24 – 2, 17 KOs). There has been much discussion over the last few weeks on who has the edge in this one. Some thinking that Froch cannot handle a world class operator such as Taylor & some believing Froch will be too tough for the American. Here I will give you my take on how I see things going & the ways each man can win this one.

Carl is moving in to uncharted territory for himself here. He hasn’t fought anyone on Taylor’s level previously & will need to box clever. The Nottingham fighter will need to improve his guard from previous fights to avoid taking too many shots (although he does have an excellent chin), you don’t want to give anything away at this level. Carl is the stronger of the two men & he will look to stamp his authority on the fight by getting in close & roughing Taylor up. Froch needs to put pressure on Taylor & get him on the back foot in the same way that Pavlik did. As I said Froch has the edge on power but I believe that a lot of Americans are also underestimating his natural boxing ability & if the Taylor camp is doing the same they will get a very nasty surprise come the 25th in Connecticut.

Taylor:

This wont be a new experience for Taylor in the same way it will for Froch in the sense he has been there, done it & got the T-shirt. He has fought at a much higher level than Froch beating Hopkins twice, beating Joppy, drawing with Winky Wright & losing twice to Pavlik. A big advantage he has is that he is used to these kinds of occasions & it is also being played out in his back yard well away from Nottingham the home of ‘The Cobra’. What Taylor needs to do to win this fight is use his speed & his reach advantages to be illusive. He doesn’t want to get in to a toe to toe brawl with Froch because 9 times out of 10 I believe he will come off worse. I don’t think he will be able to KO Froch although if Froch keeps his chin stuck out it is always possible. I think for Taylor to win he needs to focus on winning rounds & avoiding Carl’s big punches.

They each have there advantages in this & they both sound confident. Froch has said he will fight anyone to prove he is a Marquee fighter & that he will aim to get him out of there as soon as possible. Taylor who sounds just as confident has said that he doesn’t see how Froch can win.

Whether you like him or not you have to give credit to Carl Froch for his willingness to step well out of his comfort zone on his first defense of his title & take on not only the number one contender but a guy who has been in with much tougher fighters than he has & to do this all away from home.

My prediction for the fight will be that Taylor will start out using his speed as reach to win rounds, but ultimately with the constant pressure from Froch he will get stuck in a battle in the mid to later rounds. Carl will pressure him for all 12 rounds & ultimately this is what will win the fight. Carl will either stop Taylor from round 8 onwards or win by unanimous decision.

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