By Sean McDaniel: World Boxing Council super middleweight champion Carl Froch (26-0, 20 KO’s) will have to leave the safe confines of Nottingham, England, to travel to Denmark to fight former WBA super middleweight champion Mikkel Kessler (42-2, 32 KO’s) in his next Super Six tournament fight on April 17th.

It’s a fight that has lost a lot of interest going into the fight after Kessler was dominated by fellow Super Six contestant Andre Ward in a 11 round technical decision defeat on November 21st in Oakland, California.

In the process of losing the fight, Kessler’s WBA title was lost as well. Froch was hoping for a chance to snatch the title in his fight with Kessler, but that won’t be possible now. Before the Kessler-Ward bout, Kessler was considered to be the best fighter in the super middleweight division and the one that was predicted to win the Super Six competition.

Kessler had taken over the division, in the views of some boxing experts, with the retirement of former WBO super middleweight champion Joe Calzaghe, who was considered to be the best fighter in the division at the time of his retirement. Kessler, however, looked slow and old against Ward, and was beaten up by the American and badly cut over both eyes due to head butts.

Froch recently defeated Andre Dirrell by a 12 round split decision on October 17th, in an exciting fight. Froch had problems with the speed and defensive ability from Dirrell, but was able to adapt to his style by roughing him up on the inside.

It was Froch’s second consecutive win over an American fighter, having stopped former WBC/WBO middleweight champion Jermain Taylor in the 12th round in April 2009. Froch struggled even worse against Taylor than he did against Dirrell, getting knocked down early in the fight from a hard right hand from Taylor. However, Taylor tired out by the 6th round, allowing Froch to come back and eventually stop him in the 12th round of the fight.

Kessler is a much different fighter than either Taylor or Dirrell. Kessler is more technical than either, with a better jab and right hand. Froch will have to come up with a different strategy if he wants to beat Kessler, because on paper at least. Kessler still has great skills, better than probably most of the fighters in the Super Six tourney, apart from Ward. But Kessler isn’t a good inside fighter as Ward proved. However, Froch isn’t all that good on the inside either, even though he had some success in roughing Dirrell up in close.

It will take more than that to beat Kessler though. Froch isn’t fast enough to get in range without being hit by Kessler on the way in. Kessler is also a lot stronger than Dirrell, and will be able to wrestle free of Froch and maybe even out-muscle Froch on the inside. Froch may not have any advantages at all on the inside against Kessler.

On the outside, Kessler is the much superior fighter due to his better jab and better movement. Froch will have to find a way to overcome this if he wants to win the fight. It’s doubtful he’ll be able to do what Ward did against Kessler, because Froch has none of Ward’s quickness or inside fighting ability.