By William Mackay: A bitter sounding Carl Froch (26-1, 20 KO’s) sounded off last Saturday night after losing a 12 round unanimous decision to Denmark’s Mikkel Kessler (43-2, 32 KO’s), saying “When you look at some of the scorecards, I was never going to win that fight. It’s a bit of a sham and it’s upsetting and if it was in Nottingham [England – where Froch lives], I would have won that fight. I would have got the decision.” Froch may have won a decision in Nottingham, but that doesn’t necessarily mean that Froch would have deserved to win the fight. It was the 31-year-old Kessler who was taking the fight to Froch all night long, not the other way around.
Froch fought passively for long stretches of the fight until the final rounds. By then, Froch had given away too many of the important rounds by fighting off his back foot instead of being engaged and going after the faster Kessler. Froch didn’t do much during the first four round rounds of the fight, basically giving them away by backing up constantly against the smaller Kessler. Although Froch did have an excellent 5th and 6th rounds, he didn’t do enough in the middle rounds, going back to fighting passively in rounds 7, 8 and 9. That’s seven rounds right there that Froch had already given up to Kessler.
Froch, to his credit, finished strong in the last three rounds, 10, 11 and 12, but by then, Froch needed to some knockdowns of Kessler or a knockout to get the win. Froch fought well in the 10th and 11th rounds, but the 12th was a pretty much even round with Kessler the more aggressive throughout the round. Froch needed to fight his heart out in the 12th, but instead he didn’t look as fierce as he was in the other rounds that he had won.
After the fight, Froch brought up the fact that he was fighting with an injury, according to the BBC. Froch said “50% of my left ear drum is gone. It’s perforated and I went to the hospital on Tuesday to have it cleared out. I need to get it checked again. It affected my balance and I felt a little bit wobbly in there. That was one of a number of injures I had, but I don’t want to make excuses.” This is what I was afraid of – Froch making excuses for the loss afterwards. I was hoping that Froch wouldn’t take away from Kessler’s win by bringing up any aches and pains he might have had going into the fight, but I guess I had hoped too much.
It is disappointing to hear Froch sounding so bitter after the fight, not taking responsibility for the things he didn’t do in the ring and then bringing up injuries. I hope that when Froch sees the fight for the first time, he’ll understand that he gave away too many important rounds early and in the middle of the fight for him to get the victory.
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