By William Mackay: If you look at some of WBC Carl Froch’s recent fights, he comes across like a rough piece of machinery that has rusted and is badly in need of oil and retooling. Froch doesn’t make anything look easy, as he tends to absorb a great deal of punishment when facing good opposition and looks slow and very hittable at all times. He faces Mikkel Kessler on April 24th, in Herning, Denmark, in a stage 2 Super Six tourney fight.
Kessler is a smooth operator or at least he was until recently when he was embarrassed in an 11 round technical decision loss to Andre Ward on November 21st. Kessler now can no longer afford to lose anymore if he wants to make it to the semi finals in the Super Six tourney and move forward. Kessler would like to get the WBC title back, which he lost three years ago in a 12 round decision loss to Joe Calzaghe in 2007.
In a pure boxing match, Kessler would seem to have more than enough skills to get by the slower, more basic Froch. However, Froch will be looking to take Kessler’s head off with every shot and be trying wear him down with heavy pressure. If Kessler makes the mistake of staying in one place all night, then Froch might be able to simply overpower Kessler with his heavy hands and nonstop pressure.
But Kessler rarely fights like this. In his loss to Ward, Kessler had difficulties with the blazing hand speed of Ward. That was a problem that Kessler seemed not ready for. He just never could defend the fast and powerful punches from Ward, and ended up getting cut up over both eyes. As the fight progressed into the 2nd half of the bout, Kessler had to turn on the pressure and attack Ward after falling way behind during the first six rounds.
This was a style of fighting that wasn’t suited for Kessler, and he only succeeded in taking even more punishment in rounds seven through ten. Kessler will have to stay out of the way of Froch’s big shots if he wants to avoid getting beaten up like he was against Ward. The trick is to stay moving, make sure he uses his jab and to avoid getting caught up in Froch’s brawling. He wants his opponents to go to war with him because this is how Froch wins his fights. Unless this is a style of fighting that you’re suited to, it’s best to stay focused and not let Froch get you out of your game.
Kessler has to remain smart, and realize that he has the much better boxing skills and doesn’t need to reduce himself to slugging it out with the slow moving Froch. For Kessler to do this, he would basically be giving up all his own advantages in hand speed and giving it to Froch on a silver platter. Froch is going to try and run him down like a truck, but Kessler has to step away from him and keep firing jabs and hard combinations.
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