By Scott Gilfoid: WBC super middleweight champion Carl Froch (26-0, 20 KO’s) is hoping to drag as many of his British boxing fans to Denmark as possible for his next stage 2 Super Six tournament fight against Mikkel Kessler (42-2, 32 KO’s) of Denmark on April 24th at the MCH Messecenter Herning, in Herning, Denmark. Froch, 32, will be entering hostile territory for the fight and fighting in front of an unfriendly crowd for a change. Froch thinks that he previously fought against hostile crowd in his fight last year in America against Jermain Taylor, but in looking at that fight, the American boxing crowd was as silent as a bunch of kittens as they watched the bout.

There was little cheering during the entire fight, even when Taylor knocked Froch the canvas in the 3rd round. Part of the reason for this is because it was a fight that wasn’t jam packed with fans, but the other reason could be that few Americans had heard of Froch before and weren’t taking sides. However, things are going to be different on April 24th. Froch, who enjoyed fighting in front of a huge British crowd of 8000 for his controversial win over Andre Dirrell in his stage 1 Super Six fight in October, will be facing a ton of Kessler fans.

Froch may not perform well with that many fans rooting against him. In an article at thisisnottingham, Froch says “There will be 10,000 in Herning and I know it will be a hostile place, but I have to make sure that I take a lot of my supporters with me.” Froch might bring a few of his Brit boxing fans with him, but probably not enough for it to matter.

Froch instead should forget about it and just focus on trying to block some punches and not be so wide open defensively. Froch’s defense was pretty much nonexistent for his fight against the talented Dirrell. Froch can’t fight like that against a talented fighter like Kessler without taking a one-sided beating, looking bad, and maybe getting stopped. He’s got to stop blocking punches with his face and put up his guard. There’s no crime in blocking shots with his gloves for goodness sakes.

Froch may end up looking like a mummy if he fights Kessler the same way he did Dirrell. Kessler will carve him to pieces all night long. Kessler will drive his fists right down the gullet of Froch and send him home to Nottingham looking like a wreck. So my suggestions for Froch is to cover up his head, try to look a little less robotic and stop sticking his big lantern jaw out. He needs to bend his knees a little, stop standing straight up and present a smaller target for Kessler’s shots.

Froch says “Kessler has all the advantages. He’s at home, the crowd will be on his side and he knows defeat means the end of the Super Six dream. But I’ve proved I can go overseas to a fighters (Jermain Taylor] backyard and pull off a big win.” I think Froch is really deceiving himself if he sees that as going overseas. Technically, Froch went overseas, but that wasn’t a huge hostile crowd that Froch had to deal with for the Taylor fight, and it wasn’t a Super Six tournament fight.

That bout took place before the Super Six tournament started. Froch won the fight, but there’s no comparison to the crowd at that fight and the one that Froch will be facing on April 24th in Herning, so he needs to get a clear picture on that. That’s like me saying that because I’ve given a good presentation in front of a quiet class of 30 that I’ll do equally well giving the same presentation in front of 10,000 hostile students in an arena. Maybe I would, but then again maybe I wouldn’t. I think Froch is going to freeze up on April 24th, and the hostile fans won’t have anything to do with it. They won’t help him much, but that won’t be the reason Froch loses to Kessler.