By Lee Fletcher: On October 17th, the ground breaking Super Six tournament kicks off with World Boxing Council super middleweight champion Carl Froch (25(20)-0-0) taking on untested talent Andre Dirrell (18(13)-0-0) in Nottingham, England in what is sure to be an exciting fight.

When I think about this fight I can’t help but draw comparisons from the recent Amir Khan – Andreas Kotelnik fight. In a similar mold we have a younger fighter with undoubtedly quicker hands against a more experienced fighter with greater power. This I believe is where the comparison ends. As we all know in said fight the outcome was Khan winning using his superior speed and skill to keep the fight at arms length and win via unanimous decision. Carl Froch will undoubtedly spend the first quarter of the fight walking down Dirrell as the latter tries to use his speed to dictate the fight, just as Amir Khan did.

The difference and the one I think will swing the fight is the fact that unlike Kotelnik, Froch has every confidence in the strength of his chin and power of punch and will be more than willing to take a few shots to land a few shots. Kotelnik let khan control the fight by standing off him. Froch will walk Dirrell down throwing heavy punches relentlessly for the full 12 rounds if its goes that far.

Many, myself included (and I am a huge Froch fan) didn’t give Carl a chance against Taylor who was undoubtedly the superior boxer. Taylor is a vastly experienced boxer who has respectable power and great hand speed and who has fought a number of world class fighters (Bernard Hopkins, Ronald ‘Winky’ Wright, and Kelly Pavlik). We all know how that turned out.

Dirrell has debatable power and incredible hand speed but he has earned his ‘0’ by beating hand picked journeymen. This I believe will be another deciding factor. The step up in class is a huge one and I think the gulf will be to big come fight night. Dirrell has no doubt got talent but maybe this opportunity has come a year or two to early for him. The pace and ferocity will be more than he has ever had to contend with.

The fires have been stoked further as a result of Dirrells bold words in the run up to the bout. Brazen and outspoken he has declared amongst other things that drawing Froch was ‘the easiest opponent he could have hoped for’ where as Froch has kept to his usual calm and self confident persona of saying he will ‘let his fists do the talking in the ring’.

The time however for talking is nearly at an end and on the 17th of next month the anticipation will finally come to an end. I’m backing Froch to win by stoppage in the middle rounds but this is boxing and so long as it continues each fighter has as they say ‘a punchers chance’. The world will be watching. Who will you be backing?