By Scott Gilfoid: World Boxing Council super middleweight champion Carl Froch (26-0, 20 KO’s) thinks he’s going to take out Mikkel Kessler (42-2, 32 KO’s) this Saturday night in their Super Six tournament stage 2 fight in Herning, Denmark. Froch, 32, is facing a faster fighter than himself and one with probably a lot better boxing skills as well. In an article by Steve Bunce at the Mirror, Froch says “I will take him out and cement my position in both the Super Six and world rankings as a genuine star that is prepared to meet the best when they are at their best.”

You got to give Froch some credit for fighting good opponents, but when you at the fact that he’s taking part in the Super Six tournament, which is stacked with talented fighters like Andre Dirrell and Andre Ward, it’s not like Froch has any choice in the matter.

All the Super Six tournament fighters have to fight good opponents. It is, after all, a tournament loaded with the best fighters in the division. So, I can’t drop for the 10 count and start praising Froch night and day for doing what all the other fighters are doing. By taking part in the tournament, you have to fight the guys who compete in the tournament. It isn’t like Froch could turn around and fight a bum if he wanted to.

Froch was smart enough to realize that by taking part in the tournament, he could get a get a ton of attention the easy way by having his fights viewed in the United States and Canada, and not just in the UK. There’s a huge upside there for Froch, even if he does end up losing to Kessler and Arthur Abraham, his next two opponents. Froch says “I could have sat down with my team a year ago and picked easy fights against washed up fighters and made my retirement money. I refused to do that and instead went to America to take care of [Jermain] Taylor and then entered the Super Six to prove I’m a great fighter.” I agree with Froch about that.

He could have chosen to stick around and fight on the local scene and only had to deal with guys like George Groves and James DeGale. I think Froch would do well against those fighters, and he probably could stay a champion for the next four or five years in the UK, so I give the guy a lot of credit for stepping up to the plate and fighting in the Super Six. I think Froch wants to make more of a mark than Joe Calzaghe, who didn’t really take on big world class stars until the very end of his career. By taking on fighters at what appears to be the middle of his career, Froch is ahead of Calzaghe and could in theory wind up with a more impressive record if he ends up winning the Super Six tournament and moving up to the light heavyweight division and finding success.

However, the chances of that happening are fairly remote at best. I think Froch is going to lose badly to Kessler, then get knocked out by Abraham and not make the semi finals of the tournament. Kessler is a special kind of fighter and Froch, who reminds me a lot of Kelly Pavlik for some reason, is slow and right there for Kessler to pound on with his shots. Even if Kessler has an off night, which I don’t expect him to, I see him dominating Froch much in the same way that Sergio Martinez dominated the slow Pavlik this last Saturday. Speed wins out in the end over fighters with no hand speed or foot movement.