By Williams Mackay: WBC super middleweight champion Carl Froch is out to show former World Boxing Association super middleweight champion Mikkel Kessler who the top dog is for their April 17th bout in Kessler’s home country of Denmark. In an article at thisisnottingham, Froch, 32, says “It’s my job to go over to his [Kessler] back yard and prove who the top dog in the division is.”

Speaking about Kessler’s 12 round decision loss to American Andre Ward on November 21st, Froch says “If anything, Kessler will now be more dangerous. But it will make no difference to the outcome.” Let’s hope so for Froch’s sake. He’s entering hostile territory, coming off a terribly unimpressive 12 round split decision win over Andre Dirrell on October 17th in the Super Six tournament stage 1 part of the competition.

Froch was beaten to the punch the entire night, and was only able to land anything when he was in a clinch with Dirrell. Froch’s timing looked way off and his hand speed was nonexistent in the fight. The judges awarded Froch the decision, but it wasn’t a popular one with many fans.

Kessler was badly beaten by Ward in Andre’s home city of Oakland, California. Kessler was supposed to win the fight because of his better experience. However, the fight proved to be a huge mismatch, as Kessler was unable to match Ward’s hand speed and versatility. The loss was a bitter one for Kessler, who responded by dismissing his long-time trainer Ricard Olsen and replacing him with Jimmy Montoya.

It’s unclear whether Kessler’s new trainer will have much of an effect on him. Montoya can only do so much, and Kessler has a lot of glaring weaknesses starting with robotic style of fighting. He’s got to try to loosen up and needs to learn to move his head more. It probably won’t make much of a difference if Montoya’s teaching doesn’t sink in by April 17th. Kessler looks to have more than enough talent to beat Froch.

I think the only chance that Froch has of winning is if he can catch Kessler with a big shot and stop him. I can’t see that happening because Froch’s hand speed won’t be good enough for him to land any of his big shots. The only way he’ll land anything is if he stops loading up on his shots and throws shorter punches with more speed.

Kessler says “The fight against Froch is the most important of my career. I wish will work hard to win this battle and show my great fans what the Viking Warrior is really made of.”