By Sean McDaniel: On April 17th, World Boxing Council super middleweight champion Carl Froch (26-0, 20 KO’s) will be getting his long awaited wish by fighting Mikkel Kessler (42-2, 32 KO’) in their Super Six tournament fight in Denmark. Froch, 32, has wanted to get a fight with Kessler for a couple of years now, but had little luck in getting a fight until he decided to participate in the Super Six tournament.

In terms of skills, Froch doesn’t look to be in the same league as Kessler, as he’s much slower than and not nearly as smooth as the Danish fighter. Whereas Kessler tries to get out of the way of shots coming at him, Froch tends to walk through them so that he can get to his opponent that much faster.

Froch moves in straight lines and seems to take the shortest route to his targets that way. If this fight had taken place a year ago, it’s unlikely that anyone would be giving Froch a serious chance of beating Kessler. However, Kessler was recently beaten by Andre Ward in a 11 round technical decision loss on November 21st, in a fight that Kessler looked really poor in.

Some of that was caused by Kessler being cut up over both eyes by a series of head butts with Ward, but there’s no mistaking that Kessler was totally dominated by Ward. Kessler looked old in the fight, and nothing like his former self a couple of years ago when he fought Joe Calzaghe. The question is whether that was because of what Ward was doing or because Kessler had aged. It’s hard to tell, really, because Ward looked so sensational on that night, and Kessler just didn’t seem to have a clue how to adapt to Ward’s fighting style.

Froch typically attacks hard just like Ward, albeit without his blazing hand speed and his movement. Kessler won’t have a hard time guessing where Froch will be coming from because the British fighter will be coming straight at him trying to run him down like he does with most of his opponents. Kessler will no doubt be using lateral movement to escape from Froch’s attacks and counter him.

Froch just fought Andre Dirrell, a previously unbeaten American fighter in the Super Six tourney, and Carl had a huge dose of lateral movement in that fight. Kessler’s movement will likely seem like nothing compared to the movement that Dirrell was using on Froch, and I can imagine that Froch won’t have trouble catching up to Kessler.

However, Froch may not like what he gets when he does corner Kessler. Mikkel is the much more polished fighter, and quite capable of taking advantage of any mistakes that Froch makes during exchanges. Kessler will likely have little trouble landing counter shots and making Froch pay for anything that he lands.

On the flipside, Froch is also a good counter puncher who does well against a trapped or stationary opponent. If he can get Kessler to stay in one place for any length of time that would be to Froch’s favor. Kessler will have to keep hitting and moving if he wants to beat Froch. He can’t afford to stay in one place and let Froch land his heavy shots.

Dirrell showed how to beat Froch by hitting him, moving and then clinching him when he gets in close. That worked really well for Dirrell, because Froch was only able to punch at all when they were in a clinch. In between that, Froch was missing all night long and looking more than a little clumsy and slow of foot.

I think Kessler wins this fight if he can stay on the move for 12 rounds. But if he tries to stay in one place and fight it out, then Froch will wear him down with his heavy shots and beat him into submission. The crowd should be a big factor for Kessler.