Kessler vs. Froch: Does Mikkel school Carl?

By William Mackay: If this fight had taken place before last November, few boxing fans would likely give WBC super middleweight champion Carl Froch (26-0, 20 KO’s) much of a chance to beat Mikkel Kessler (42-2, 32 KO’s). What changed the perception in the minds of many fans is seeing how badly Kessler was beaten by 26-year-old Andre Ward on November 21st last year in their Super Six tournament fight in Oakland, California. Ward beat Kessler pretty much every way you can beat a fighter short of knocking him out.

And Kessler looked to be on his way being taken out by Ward legitimately until the referee Jack Reiss mercifully stepped in and called a halt to the fight because of the two cuts over Kessler’s eyes. So badly was Kessler dominated by Ward that many boxing fans came away from that fight thinking that Kessler is damaged goods and is a shot fighter.

Instead of giving Ward credit for having fought a perfect fight against Kessler, people came off thinking he lost because he was getting old. At 31, I find it hard to believe that Kessler has suddenly lost his ability and become shot overnight. But many fans still see it that way. On April 24th, we will get to see whether fans are correct about Kessler being shot or if he can prove them wrong by beating Carl Froch and capturing his WBC super middleweight title.

Kessler has the scene set for him to rebound from his last defeat, because his stage 2 Super Six fight with Froch will take place in his home country at the MCH Messecenter Herning, Herning, Denmark. The crowd will be on Kessler’s side, he’ll have the boxing skills on his side and the only thing he’ll have to prove is whether he can handle Froch’s constant pressure. Froch looked vulnerable in his last fight against American Andre Dirrell, beating him by a narrow 12 round split decision last October.

Froch’s foot movement and his hand speed looked particularly bad in that fight and made it easy for Dirrell to avoid Froch’s punches almost entirely until Froch began to throw punches in the clinch. Kessler won’t be clinching too often with Froch, because that’s not Kessler’s style of fighting. As such, Froch is going to have to figure out a different way to beat Kessler, one that entails Froch landing punches from the outside and in the center of the ring.

Froch won’t be able to mug a fighter like Kessler because of Mikkel’s tremendous boxing skills. If Froch tries to rough him up and land his slow shots, Kessler will probably fire him up with fast shots to the head and body. Kessler isn’t as fast as Andre Ward or Andre Dirrell, but he’s got good hand speed and is able to hit what he aims at most of the time.

This fight could get really out of hand very early for Froch is he’s not careful. If Kessler builds up an early lead like Jermain Taylor did in his fight with Froch last year, Froch won’t be able to count on Kessler wearing down and losing the fight in the later rounds. The reason is because Kessler has never had any issues with his stamina in the past, and it’s not likely to happen now either.

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