By Sean McDaniel: WBC super middleweight champion Carl Froch isn’t being given too much of a chance to win the Super Six tournament by most boxing fans and experts. But could the fans and experts be wrong about Froch? Could be prove them all wrong and sweep the field? Froch has already shocked many people by beating Jean Pascal, Jermain Taylor and Andre Dirrell in the past three fights.

Say what you want about Taylor being shot, he fought all out against Froch for 11 rounds before being blasted out in the 12th and looked much more dangerous than he did in his fight against Arthur Abraham on October 17th. Froch has fights coming up against Mikkel Kessler and then Arthur Abraham. If Froch can win those two fights, he will be able to move up into the next bracket.

It’s hard to say who Froch would be facing at that level, but one could guess that it might be Kessler or Ward. Froch matches up well with Kessler due to the Dane’s tendency to stay put more and fight it out. Ward would be a different story because he likes to move around a lot like Dirrell. Ward used the in and out style of fighting and it would be tough for Froch to pin him down for any big exchanges. Froch would then have to chase Ward down like he expertly did against Dirrell in their fight on October 17th.

Froch showed in that fight that he could beat quickness by going straight at Dirrell and forcing him to react. When Dirrell was able to come forward, he caused Froch some problems. But, most of the time, Froch was the one chasing Dirrell down and landing punches to the body and sometimes to the head. There’s little question that Froch beat Dirrell, no matter what some other boxing writers and fans say. Froch made the fight, went after Dirrell and put him on the defensive. A fighter can’t win a fight when he’s reacting and moving backwards.

Of all the opponents in the Super Six, I only see Kessler and Ward as giving Froch any real trouble. Froch would beat Dirrell in a rematch without any problems. Kessler will be tough because he does everything perfectly. Kessler jabs well, and is lethal with his combinations. Froch will have to fight a lot better than he did against Dirrell if he wants to beat Kessler.

The good news, perhaps, is that Froch should have better luck landing his shots against Kessler compared to Dirrell. Kessler won’t me moving nearly as much and won’t be fighting on the back foot the entire fight like Dirrell. Froch had his work cut out for him with Dirrell because the American fighter wasn’t ever interested in taking Froch on head to head like most fighters do and seemed to be more intent on spoiling.

Kessler doesn’t fight like that and will be taking the fight to Froch. It’ll be up to Froch to try and plant something hard enough to hurt Kessler because he probably won’t be able to match Kessler punch for punch the entire fight.