Photo credit: Tom Casino/SHOWTIME – By Simon Hirst: In a good fight for the WBC super middleweight title, Carl Froch KO’d Jermain Taylor with 15 seconds left in the last round to retain his title.
It was an extremely difficult fight for Froch, defending his title for the first time in his opponent’s backyard. It was Taylor’s second fight at super middleweight and was looking to regain a championship after claiming he was fully focused and motivated again.
As most expected, Taylor was the quicker to start, beating Froch to the punch, rocking Froch who, as usual, left his defence low and almost paid for it when he didn’t see an overhand right in the third that put him down for the first time in his career. Taylor, like in his fight with Pavlik, didn’t seize the moment and allowed Froch to continue through to the bell.
It was round seven that Froch started to utilize his jab more effectively, and started to make a comeback, although he needed a knockdown to score some points that would allow him back into the fight. Whilst he was winning round with his work ethic, he didn’t seem like he could knock Taylor down to close the gap.
Going into the last round and four points down on two scorecards, Froch had to hunt for the knockout. Of course, he didn’t know this, but continue to step up his work ethic and caught Taylor who stumbled back. Taylor, clearly running on nothing, had no answer when Froch caught him with a right that took him against the ropes and another hard right put him down.
Credit to Taylor, he rose to his feet, but he had little control over his legs. Froch, almost veteran-like stayed composed kept some distance to allow him throw punches so that Taylor could not hold on. With 15 seconds left and ten or more unanswered punches, the referee jumped in to halt the fight and allowed Froch to come away with a miraculous victory.
In a pre-fight text in carried out by Sho box, only 6% thought Froch would be knocked down and still win the fight.
Froch proceeded to call out Calzaghe, who had said before the fight that Froch wasn’t a name in America and wouldn’t fight him.
It’s a little embarrassing for Taylor because before the fight, when it was first announced, people had asked him who he is fighting and he said ‘Carl Froch’ they would say ‘who?’ this ‘nobody’ has knocked him out on his own soil. This is a big statement for Froch and while many can’t argue with Froch’s performance wasn’t best with a slow start, low defence and too easily punch, you cannot argue with his heart, determination and effort that eventually wore Taylor down and stopped him. Taylor is a big scalp for anybody and arguably the biggest scalp and of the champions in this division have.
Where does Taylor go from here? He put a good showing and would have won the fight had it gone to points. Would he beat Kessler? I doubt it, but there are two champions in Bute and Balzsay who he could beat. Will he get a rematch that he probably deserves? I doubt it.
As for Froch, he only wants big fights and if I’m not mistaken, will take a voluntary defence next. I hope he targets other champions once Calzaghe rules himself out. He showed great composure in finishing Taylor and I can’t see a huge list of people queuing up to fight him. As for me, I think Kessler is another step up and would probably take on someone like Bute next in unification.
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