By Scott Gilfoid: WBO light heavyweight champion Nathan Cleverly, who was selected to spar with WBA super middleweight champion Mikkel Kessler (46-2, 32 KO’s) recently, can’t pick a winner between him and IBF super middleweight champion Carl Froch (30-2, 22 KO’s) for their fight this Saturday night. Cleverly sees it as a fight that could go either way.
Cleverly said to walesonline.co.uk: “They’re both evenly matched. They had a war in the first fight and it’s going to be pretty similar second fight. It’s 50-50, really. It’s too hard to call this one…Kessler’s looking sharp, looking good, some nice movement and he’s up for it. He’s going to give it everything for sure.”
Froch thinks the crowd will help him win due the fight taking place in London, UK, with most of the fans showing up at the fight likely being fans of his. However, Kessler’s a seasoned professional and he’s used to fighting in front of large crowds and he probably won’t be intimidated by a little noise.
I’m surprised Froch is seeing this as an advantage for him because the only way that it’s going to be any kind of an advantage is with perhaps the judges giving him rounds that would likely go to Kessler if the fight were to be staged in a neutral venue.
Crowd noise influences judges, especially when the crowd is cheering for a particular fighter and keeping quiet when the other fighter lands his punches. Kessler could turn the crowd into a very quiet one by taking charge of the fight early, smashing Froch in the puss each time he tries to bum rush him, and using his movement to keep out of range.
Froch has a pretty good job, but it’s not nearly as good as Kessler’s, so he’s not going to be able to sit back and just stab Kessler at long range. I seriously doubt Froch will even try to do this. He’ll walk forward like he always does and look to nail Kessler with his big power shots and likely attempt to overwhelm him with combinations like he did against former IBF super middleweight champion Lucian Bute last May in Nottingham.
I don’t see this as a 50-50 fight. I think Froch is going to make too many mistakes by being overly aggressive and give up his only advantage that he has in terms of his stamina. Froch will probably be the better conditioned fighter due to him being the busier fighter during the past three years, but I believe he’s going to get himself in trouble by going straight at Kessler real hard and eating a lot of hard shots.