By Scott Gilfoid: WBC super middleweight champion Carl Froch looked unhinged in the last part of Showtime’s special “Staredown Ward vs. Froch.” The show started off well with Ward educating Froch about himself by telling him that he has too much of a need to be in control of situations.

Naturally, Froch hated being dissected by Ward and disagreed. Ward said “When you’re not in control you try to out-talk people.” Ward then let Froch know how he saw him get hurt twice in the Andre Dirrell fight, saying “I saw Andre Dirrell buzz Froch two times in that fight. I saw Carl Froch on his knees praying for victory in his own hometown, and then he gets up and says it was a piece of cake.”

That set off Froch hearing Ward remind him of that terrible night in October 2009 when Froch got schooled by Dirrell and received a gift decision from the judges in his home city of Nottingham, England. Dirrell was making Froch look silly for the first four rounds and then Froch snapped in the 5th, throwing Dirrell to the canvas in a body slam that would make professional proud. At that point it was like the floodgates had burst, because Froch began fouling Dirrell like no tomorrow for the next five rounds while the referee just stood there, mouth open not lifting a finger to help Dirrell from the out of control Froch.

Froch said to Ward “I went down on one knee. I knew I had won the fight but I got involved in the emotion of that. When I watched it back, I said ‘why did I get down on one knee with that idiot?’ The way he [Dirrell] behaved was idiotic. He may not be an idiot personally, but the way he was carrying on during and after the fight. I wasn’t manly. Now I regret doing that. So that was nothing as if it was a close fight. I shouldn’t have done that.”

It sure did look to me like Froch was praying that he would get the decision because Dirrell had badly schooled Froch in front of his own Nottingham fans. I scored it 8 rounds to 3 with 1 even.

If you take away that ridiculous point deduction made against Dirrell for holding Froch to escape from getting hit with so many rabbit punches, I had the fight scored 9 rounds to 3 for Dirrell. It was a one-sided fight from start to finish for Dirrell.

Ward then mentioned how Froch had been hurt by not only Dirrell, but also Mikkel Kessler. At this point Froch started stuttering like Elmer Fudd. Froch still couldn’t admit that he was hurt and then instead of taking responsibility for being hurt in both of those fights, he brought up how Ward was hurt by Darnell Boone many years ago. Instead of denying I and seeming like a person that can’t accept their faults, Ward acknowledged that he had been hurt in that fight. This left Froch looking tongue-tied because he wasn’t expecting Ward to agree that he was hurt.

Ward said “Froch wants to be in control, but he’s never fought a fighter like me.”

Again, Froch seemed to lose his cool, saying “I think you’re reading into me too much. You’re putting yourself on a pedestal too much. You shouldn’t be doing that. It’s dangerous.”

At this point the Showtime host Jim Gray asked Froch if he was trying to minimize Ward’s accomplishments. Froch looked like a kid caught with his hand in the cookie jar, opening his eyes wide, his face turning red, and said “I don’t benefit if I minimize his accomplishments.”

This discussion then got on the boring topic of which fighter has a better chin. Froch really seemed to like this type of discussion because he obviously prides himself in his ability to absorb punishment. Ward looked completely bored, probably because he doesn’t see taking punishment as something you should be proud of. Ward said “From the school of boxing I come from that’s frowned upon, giving free shots. I think he takes a good shot, but I can take a good shot too.”

At this point Froch started looking he had Ward where he wanted to. You could see it in Froch’s eyes, he was working himself up to a quiet anger and the lather was starting to form on the sides of his mouth as he talked. Froch said “I know full well that Andre’s not going to knock me out. You can’t render me unconscious, but guess what? I can knock you out with either hand. I’m coming looking for a knockout. I’m excited about it. Andre Ward is a great fighter, but he’s going to get knocked out.”

By this time Froch looked completely unbalanced. He was smiling and seemed crazed, as if he was in trance. It was scary to look at him. It was like madness. Ward just stared at him with no emotion as if to say ‘You poor British sap, you’re living in a dream world.’

The last part of the show cut to where Ward bringing attention to the fact that Froch tried to give him an iron-man hand shake by squeezing the heck out of his hand when they were shaking at the end of the show.