By Scott Gilfoid: WBC super middleweight champion Carl Froch (26-0, 20 KO’s) is looking like a mini Nostradamus now for his prediction that Andre Dirrell would beat Arthur Abraham. In an interview at Boxing Fanhouse, Froch said “I think Arthur Abraham is going to really struggle with Andre Dirrell. I think Dirrell outboxes Abraham. Abraham’s tough and strong, but I think Dirrell will beat him and then people will realize what a good job I did against Dirrell.”

That was an outstanding prediction by the 32-year-old Froch, because few people were giving Dirrell any kind of chance at all going into his fight with Abraham. Froch, of course, had a big advantage over other people in that he had already saw how tough it was to beat Dirrell because he had fought him last October and beaten him by a narrow 12 round split decision.

Many people felt that Froch lost that fight, which took place in Froch’s home city of Nottingham, England. Froch had a different spin to put on his “win” over Dirrell, saying “Dirrell just ran away like a girl when he boxed me. He was just running and holding.“

It appears that Froch was hoping that Dirrell would fight his style of fight by standing directly in front of Froch and trading all night long. In the United States, boxing is a little different. Boxing stars like Muhammad Ali, Sugar Ray Robinson, Roy Jones Jr. and Floyd Mayweather Jr. have taken boxing to a different level. These great stars were able to change the sport by using movement and selective punching to avoid the shots of their slower opponents.

Dirrell is in the same line as those fighters with his slick boxing skills and his amazing hand speed. You couldn’t expect Dirrell to forget all that boxing knowledge and fight a cavemen type fight to suit Froch’s tastes, could you? If you know someone is limited, you don’t fight down to their style just to make them happy.

Froch smartly says “I knew that against Abraham, he [Dirrell] was going to just punch the hell out of him, which he did for 10 rounds. But it was a shame the way that it finished for him, because I think that takes a lot of confidence away from him, getting chinned in such a manner. But, yeah, I knew that he would beat Abraham.” I don’t agree with Froch about the loss taking anything away from Dirrell. He wasn’t really hurt in the fight, at least there was no actual concussion from the fight.

I don’t see it taking away any confidence from him at all. If anything, it’s going to make Dirrell smarter, because he’s going to realize that he needs to be more careful when he slips on the canvas. From here on out, I’m betting that Dirrell will have his guard up at all times when he falls to the canvas from now on. I don’t expect Dirrell to be slipping around, but if he does, you can expect him to be prepared in case one of his Super Six opponents gets it in their heads to land a free shot.

Froch has his own problems to worry about. He’s facing Mikkel Kessler on April 24th, in Herning, Denmark. I don’t expect Froch to win that fight. And after that, Froch will be the one facing Abraham when he fights him in the stage 3 part of the Super Six tournament. My prediction is a knockout win for Abraham in that fight.