Froch: “I am looking to be the first fighter to take Mikkel Kessler out”
February 12th, 2010
By William Mackay: In typical Carl Froch fashion, he was predicting circumstances for his next Super Six opponent former WBA super middleweight champion Mikkel Kessler, saying in an article at the Sportinglife “I am looking to be the first fighter to take Mikkel Kessler out before the final bell.” Froch and Kessler will be facing one another on April 24th, at the MCH Messecenter Herning, in Herning, Denmark. The bout was originally scheduled for April 17th, but it was moved as of today to the 24th.
Froch might be a little over ambitious when it comes to the amount of British boxing fans that will be willing to trek all the way to Denmark to see him fight. That’s a long haul, costly and the location of the fight won’t be as easy for fans to get to. If “thousands” of Froch fans do show up to support him against Kessler, I will be very surprised.
Froch says “I have gone to Jermain Taylor’s backyard and defended my belt and I am more than happy to do the same with Kessler. As the champion, I will prove that I can fight and beat the best anywhere.” First of all, there’s a huge difference between Taylor and Kessler. Froch is talking apples and oranges here. Taylor’s chin wasn’t the same after his knockout loss to Kelly Pavlik in 2007, and Froch’s 12th round knockout win over Taylor last year in April has to be seen in that light.
Additionally, Taylor had been suffering stamina problems since 2005, and faded badly in his fight against Froch after knocking him to the canvas in the 3rd and building up a substantial lead during the first six rounds. At the time that Froch stopped Taylor, Froch was behind on the scorecards and needed a knockout to win. And as far as knocking out Kessler goes, if his last opponent Andre Ward couldn’t do it, then I can’t see Froch getting the job done against him.
Ward is a lot faster than Froch, punches as hard and has a better arsenal of punches. Yet Ward pounded away at Kessler for 12 rounds, beating him much worse than Joe Calzaghe had done in his 12 round decision win over Kessler in 2007. Froch won’t likely be able to do what Ward couldn’t so. If anything, Froch needs to be content to just try and win the fight. If he goes out looking for a knockout, he’s only going to slow down his already painfully slow punches even more and make it easier for Kessler to pound his face and distort his features.
Kessler lost his World Boxing Association super middleweight title in an 11 round technical decision to Ward in November 2009. Kessler was cut over both eyes from a series of head butts from Ward. The blood dripping into Kessler’s eyes made it difficult for him to see and he began to get hit a lot by Ward. However, Ward dominated virtually every moment of the fight and never had any problems with the slower Kessler.
For his part, Froch defeated American Andre Dirrell in the stage 1 Super Six tournament competition in October. Froch looked out of his league for most of the fight until turning the bout physical in the 2nd half of the bout, throwing Dirrell to the canvas in a wrestling move at one point, and using other rough stuff to try and put Dirrell off his game. Froch ended up winning by a 12 round split decision. However, many boxing fans felt that Dirrell should have won the fight.
Kessler is optimistic about his chances against Froch, saying “With the support of my great Danish fans, I will defeat Carl Froch and become world champion again.”
Tags: 11 Responses to “Froch: “I am looking to be the first fighter to take Mikkel Kessler out””
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I think kessler will win by tko in the later rounds because except for the pascal fight since he has moved to world level he’s not been able to land enough shots , he thinks defence is standing there with his hands down while getting hit trying to land 1 big punch. aswell as his last few fights being snoozefests.
I am from manchester , any comments about how boring manchester fighters are 0
Oh look we’ve got a couple of Khan fans bashing Froch, what a surprise! Froch takes on anybody and hasn’t lost yet, Khan takes on nobody and has been massacred! No room for debate!
Whatever you think of Froch you have to admire him if you are a true boxing fan. This guy takes on everyone, doesn’t demand silly treatment for being the champ etc, will fight away from home.
His last 2 fights he did not look good coz they were both the absolute worse style for Froch… and he still won. Kessler is right up Froch’s street and no way Ward hits as hard as Froch. I think Kessler is declining now and Froch will break him down hopefully using his devasting upper cut late on in the fight.
I’v watched 2 of Froch’s fights, 1 with Taylor which he was losing and got lucky at the end cuz of Taylor’s stamina problem and the 2nd one with Dirrell which i didnt see anything interesting about this fighter . and from what iv seen i would pick Kessler to win the fight. As for the other 2 fights i pick AA over Dirrell via KO and Ward over Green ud.
Aint happening Froch its over your title is going. Dirrel schooled Froch in that fight, Froch is one dirty fighter, slow, no good boxing skills, no work rate nothing no wonder no tv company is intrested in him in the uk.
I wish Froch could show a little humility now and again.
He scraped by whats his name? The Canadian, was lucky against Taylor and was lucky against Dirrell.
Since hes stepped up to the top level its become clear that an iron chin and iron heart along with some heavy (ish) hands isnt guna be enough to dominate the division like it would at domestic level. Its a good thing to have but your opponants are guna be bringing stuff too.
I just think hes finding it tough but after the fights is talking like he stormed to a 1 sided victory and doing it the way they had planned in training.
Your good Froch but your not half as good as you think you are.
LMFAO Ward punches as hard as Froch Lol
Froch v Dirrell – the debates goes on. I thought Froch won by sticking to his game plan and being consistent. Dirrell tried everything he could but was so inconsistent that it was like Froch was fighting three different guys. Dirrell was slick, fast and highly skilled then he was hugging, moaning and running then he was getting caught and being roughed up and so it went. Dirrell won his rounds clean and completely then he lost them the same way. He needs to be much more disciplined against Abraham. I had Froch winning by 2 rounds.
I think Froch will beat Kessler somehow, he always pulls something out the bag.
Kessler has already been stopped by Ward,.. call it a technical stop or whatever,.. he got stomped that night,.. easy work…Kessler and Froch will be fighting on equal terms.
this is not a good article. Ward punches as hard as Froch? Come on now.
It’s time for Froch to grow into a fighter we’ve all hoped he would be. We never had Froch vs Calzaghe but perhaps he can give us an indication of what he would have done in that fight.
Come on Froch! make this year “The Year of the Cobra”.