By Scott Gilfoid: It seems that World Boxing Council super middleweight champion Carl Froch (26-0, 20 KO’s) still has some bruised feelings about his controversial 12 round split decision win over the talented Andre Dirrell (19-1, 13 KO’s) from their Super Six stage 1 bout last October. In an article at Boxing Fanhouse, Froch says “I was hoping that Abraham was going to knock him out, and that’s what happened, even though Dirrell did get the decision.” Gosh, Froch seems to really be holding a grudge against Dirrell because of his impressive performance against Froch. You can’t blame a fighter for giving it his all, coming into a foreign country, staggering the champion and trying his hardest to get a win, can you?

Froch should be thankful that he got to face a fighter like Dirrell in his first fight in the Super Six tournament. Froch got a huge gift by being able to get the valuable experience of fighting Dirrell. I think Dirrell was able to teach Froch a lot of things in that fight, specifically how to deal with a fighter with incredible boxing talent and amazing hand speed. Froch didn’t really ever figure out Dirrell, but he at least showed that he can stay in there with the talented American.

A lot of fighters would have gone down and stayed down when Dirrell started firing power shots in the 10th, but not Froch. To be sure, Froch got staggered badly after getting hit with two huge straight left hands from Dirrell in the round, but to his credit, he got out of the round without going down. That showed something from Froch for him to do that.

Froch says “I wanted him [Abraham] to knock him [Dirrell] out. And I would say that that is probably personal, because Dirrell’s a horrible person. At our press conference, I had to listen to a lot of his rubbish and a lot of his jive talk that a lot of people didn’t hear, and I knew how he operated. People don’t see that in the background, but I’ve seen it and I’ve gotten taste of it and he’s a horrible person.” What does Froch expect Dirrell to be? Dirrell was trash talking just like Froch. It’s all part of hyping the fight. Dirrell is totally down to earth, a nice guy and a solid person. Froch perhaps had a hard time separating the public Dirrell from the private one.

“I’m not a big fan of Andre Dirrell and his attitude and what he stands for,” Froch says. What he stands for? Dirrell is a talent much like other huge stars in the sport like Floyd Mayweather and a young Roy Jones Jr. What Dirrell stands for is practicing the noble art of hitting and not getting hit in return, and he’s quite good at that. Dirrell isn’t going to give up his incredible talents and just stand there for the slow-footed Froch to hit him. Why do that?

If you’re a fighter like Dirrell better hand speed, movement and defense than a fighter like Froch, why should Dirrell have to stay in one place and fight Froch’s fight? That would be crazy. Dirrell fought Froch the way he was supposed to, moving, blasting him with shots and occasionally tying him up in a clinch. Dirrell used just the right amount of movement and clinching to give Froch fits on that night. I don’t agree that Dirrell should have been penalized at all by the referee for what he considered to be excessive holding. I only counted an average of five clinches per round from Dirrell. That’s not a whole compared to some other fighters.