By Scott Gilfoid: The rematch between IBF super middleweight champion Carl Froch (30-2, 22 KO’s) and WBA champion Mikkel Kessler (46-2, 35 KO’s) is now official for May 25th at the O2 Arena (Millenium Dome), London, UK.
Recently there had been talk of the Froch-Kessler 2 fight taking place on April 27th, but that date would have never worked because Froch’s promoter Eddie Hearn wants the fight to be pay per view for the Brits, so the May 25th date gives them more time to market the fight to fans.
We’re still waiting to find out how much the fight will go for on PPV. The likely number will be 15 pounds.
The International Boxing Federation will be letting Froch bypass his mandatory challenger #1 IBF Adonis Stevenson so that the Froch-Kessler unification bout can take place. However, the winner of the fight will have 90 days to put together a fight with Stevenson.
Froch is already talking Lucian Bute next, so it’s likely we’ll see Froch vacate the IBF title if he gets past Kessler. I kind of doubt it that Kessler will choose to fight Stevenson as well if he gets past Froch. The most likely scenario will see Stevenson fighting for the vacant IBF title later this year, while Froch and Kessler go in different directions.
Kessler already beat Froch by a 12 round unanimous decision in April 2010 in the Super Six tournament. You can say it was a close fight, but it was a clear win for Kessler, as he got the better of Froch in every round and dominated the exchanges. Each time they’d mix it up, Froch would frequently be the one that would initiate the action, but Kessler would be the one that was landing at the end of the exchanges while Froch would back off looking to keep from getting hit. That’s obviously why Kessler won the fight. Froch is going to have to change that pattern in the rematch otherwise he’ll get beat again.
I don’t know why it is but Froch seems to back off when he receives return fire. I mean, Froch is good at being the one that starts the action, but he starts getting tagged, he backs off and looks to keep from getting hit. If you look at all of Froch’s fights against talented fighters like Andre Dirrell and Andre Ward, you’ll see the same pattern with Froch. He’ll start the exchanges, but he starts getting bombarded with shots, he backs off and heads for the hills.
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