By Scott Gilfoid: World Boxing Council super middleweight champion Carl Froch (26-0, 20 KO’s) has finally received his date for his fight with former World Boxing Association super middleweight title holder Mikkel Kessler (42-2, 32 KO’s). The Super Six tournament bout will be held on April 17th, but as of now there’s still no set location for the fight. Froch, 32, defeated American Andre Dirrell (18-1, 13 KO’s) by a controversial 12 round split decision in Froch’s home city of Nottingham, England, on October 17th.

The victory wasn’t a popular one, as many boxing fans and experts from both the U.S. and England disagreed with the outcome and felt that Dirrell should have won the fight based on his better defense and his cleaner shots. However, two of the European judges scored the fight in Froch’s favor by the identical scores of 115-112 and 115-112, while the third judge, from Mexico, scored the decision for Dirrell 114-113.

I personally had Dirrell easily winning the fight eight rounds to three with one even. Dirrell staggered Froch in the 10th round with a hard left hand and appeared to sweep the last two rounds of the fight. One of the European, incredibly, judges scored the 11th and 12th rounds to Froch. Since there aren’t any rematches – not time for it – in the Super Six tournament, there wasn’t a chance for Dirrell and Froch to fight again.

Kessler, 30, looked incredibly poor in his fight with American Andre Ward on November 21st, losing to Ward by a 11 round technical decision by the scores of 97-93, 98-92 NS 98-92. The bout was eventually stopped due to cuts over both of Kessler’s eyes as a result of a series of head-butts that had accidentally occurred between him and Ward during the fight. The technical decision may have saved Kessler from being knocked out, though, because he took a brutal one-sided beating from Ward and wasn’t in the least competitive at any point in the fight. I had Ward winning basically every round. I gave Kessler a couple of mercy rounds, but really I didn’t see Kessler coming close to winning any of them. He was just outclassed by Ward and made to look old.

The date of April 17th, which is five months between Kessler’s last fight with Ward and six months between Froch’s bout with Dirrell, appears to be set because of the huge cuts that Kessler suffered in the Ward fight. The cuts will need extra time to heal properly to prevent them from re-opening in the Froch fight and presenting a problem for Kessler. If the cuts don’t re-open, I see Kessler beating Froch with ease.

However, if Kessler does get cut again, I would have to give the nod to Froch to take this fight. Kessler seemed to come unglued when he was cut in the 8th round against Ward and complained frequently that he couldn’t see. Given the huge size of the cuts, there’s a good chance that the scar tissue will open up again and be a problem in the Froch fight. If Kessler can stay composed and fight on the outside using his jab, he should win the fight even with a cut or two. But he’ll have to keep it together better than he did in the Ward fight for him to do it.

Kessler will have to prepare himself mentally for any potential cuts for roughhouse tactics that Froch might employ in the fight. Froch was being dominated by Dirrell in the first four rounds of the fight, but then resorted to roughing Dirrell up in the 5th. Kessler needs to stay composed when Froch does this and resist getting upset about it. Dirrell wasted time complaining in England to the referee and found himself getting penalized for all his complaining.

Kessler should just accept whatever fouls that occur and keep boxing well and not get out of his game. I see Kessler winning every round against Froch and beating him like an old rug if he can deal with the rough inside fighting. Froch is going to be entering a hostile environment, one that he’s never experienced before. I don’t know that Froch will be ready for it.

Although Froch fought in the U.S. against Jermain Taylor, it was in a small arena with a quiet fan base present. However, in going to Denmark, Froch is going to have to deal with fans screaming their heads off for every punch that Kessler throws. This is going to motivate Kessler a great deal and give him energy to outbox Froch.

I really like Froch’s blue collar worth ethic, but I see Kessler as being two or three levels above Froch in talent. Froch dodged a bullet by getting a controversial decision over Dirrell in England, but I don’t think Froch has much of a chance of winning another decision. Froch won’t be able to count on knocking Kessler out because the Danish fighter has a good chin. As such, I think Froch is going to get badly schooled by Kessler and end up suffering his first defeat of his career.