Are Froch’s Days Numbered As Champion?

By Chris Williams: A lot of people never expected that World Boxing Council super middleweight champion Carl Froch (25-0, 20 KOs) would hold onto his title for long, and it looks as if they may be right. Froch is looking at taking on a number of big named fighters, such as WBA super middleweight champion Mikkel Kessler and IBF champion Lucian Bute.

Whoever Froch chooses, he will very likely be the underdog going into then fight and will have to do something extraordinary like his come from behind 12th round TKO over Jermain Taylor on April 25th.

However, the odds in Froch being able to do that again are slim, as Kessler and Bute aren’t plagued in the same way that Taylor is when it comes to stamina issues. That’s not a good thing for Froch, who doesn’t have the best of hand speed or boxing skills, especially in comparisons to Bute and Kessler.

If one of those two fighters weren’t bad enough for Froch, earlier tonight talented former 2004 Olympic Gold Medalist for U.S. Andre Ward defeated Edison Miranda by a one-sided unanimous decision to become Froch’s mandatory challenger.

Like Bute and Kessler, Ward is also a fighter that appears to have better hand speed and boxing skills than that of Froch. This effectively means that if somehow Froch is able to get by either Kessler or Bute, then Froch still need to beat Ward to defend his title.

I have a lot of respect for Froch as a fighter and like the way that he’s stepped out of what has become the standard practice of some of the prior champions in the super middleweight division taking on easiest opponents they could find in order to hold onto their titles.

However, I seriously doubt that Froch is going to be able to beat Bute or Ward. Kessler will likely not be in the picture for Froch, but I think Bute has a good chance though. For Froch, he’s looking at potentially having to face two of the toughest fighters in boxing in 2009 and 2010, should Froch be able to get by his next opponent.

That’s going to be tough, because Froch looked vulnerable against Taylor and was dropped in the 3rd round. Taylor dominated the first half of the fight, but then got tired and did a lot less in the 2nd half of the bout. This is the same thing that happened in Froch’s fight with Jean Pascal in 2008. Froch had problems in the first half of the bout with Pascal, getting hit often by faster Pascal.

But in the second half of the fight, Froch wore Pascal down and was able to pull out the decision. It would be asking a lot of Froch for him to be able to repeat this against fighters like Bute and Ward, both of whom don’t have a history of fading in late in their fights.

I doubt they will, which is why I suspect that Froch’s short period of time holding the WBC super middleweight title may likely be up in the coming months. Froch plans on fighting again in September against someone, and that person will likely be the biggest name that Froch can dig up.

Unless that person is Taylor, who stated that he wants a rematch with Froch, then I see Carl being defeated soundly, losing his title and then having to start all over again.

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