Photo: Tom Casino – By Scott Gilfoid: You got to like World Boxing Council super middleweight champion Carl Froch’s confidence, even if he might be a little deluded about himself. Froch, 31, will be the first fight as part of Showtime’s six-man tournament that starts in October with Froch taking on top super middleweight contender Andre Dirrell (18-0, 13 KO’s) on the 10th of October. “I’m going to be the last man standing,” Froch said with conviction.
Froch figures that it will come down to him and World Boxing Association super middleweight champion Mikkel Kessler in the final. I kind of feel sorry for Froch, because I don’t think he’ll make it past the first bracket of competition. Froch is going to get his backside handed to him by Dirrell, who has blinding speed and about just as much power as Froch. Froch admits that he’s not familiar with Dirrell.
I can’t say I’m surprised by that, because a lot of British boxing fans don’t have clue one as to who Dirrell is. Some of them seem to assume because they’re not familiar with him that it means that Froch will beat him. You know, kind of along the same lines as the stuff many of them were spouting about Enzo Maccarinelli beating Ola Afolabi before their bout a few months ago.
As it turned out, Afolabi ended up crushing Maccarinelli without too many problems and gave a lot of British fans an education in the process. I suspect that the same thing will happen with Dirrell beating the pants of the slow-fisted Froch.
While Froch holds down a belt, he’s not much of a boxer and is known more for having heavy hands, a good chin and excellent stamina. That kind of thing works against the lesser fighters, but when Froch has to step it up a couple of classes on October 10th against Dirrell, he’s going to be in for a rude awakening.
Jermain Taylor already pretty much exposed Froch for being a limited fighter by boxing circles around him through the first have of their April 25th fight, knocking Froch to the canvas at one point. Dirrell, however, is even stronger and faster than Taylor and doesn’t have problems with running out of gas like Taylor does.
This is going to be a slaughter mark my words. Froch is going to take a major beating and will be extremely fortunate if he can win even one round against Dirrell. I like Froch a lot as a fighter. He’s kind of like a Rocky Balboa type fighter, one of those blue collar fighters that don’t have a lot of talent but get over by having a strong chin and a lot of persistence. That won’t work against a fighter with a ton of class like Dirrell, though.
I hate to burst Froch’s bubble, but I don’t think Kessler will make it past the likes of Andre Ward or Dirrell either for that matter. Kessler was already beaten by Joe Calzaghe, a fighter that I think would lose to both Ward and Dirrell. However, Calzaghe retired suddenly just as both of them emerged from the pack and became top contenders.
As for Froch, he’ll be beaten down into the pack and sent down to contender status after Dirrell and others get a hold of him. I think Froch is good enough to beat Arthur Abraham, a smallish 5’10” middleweight that is moving up to take part in the tournament. However, beyond that, that’s about all I can see Froch doing in the tourney.
Taylor will beat him next time out by boxing him, so Froch won’t be able to depend on getting a win over him. Besides, I think Froch is going to be badly softened up by a loss to Dirrell and will take a lot of punishment in that fight in the way of head shots.
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