By William Mackay: Despite rumors circulating around the boxing world about WBC super middleweight champion Carl Froch possibly having undisclosed injuries for his Super Six tournament fight this Saturday against Mikkel Kessler, the reports are apparently false according to news from the Sportinglife. Froch’s camp has dismissed the rumors as not having any truth and sees it as nothing but gossip. However, the rumors likely started with the 32-year-old Froch’s interview with the BBC Sport, where he said “I’m never ever 100 percent for any fight. I’ve had all sorts of injuries I’ve got but I’m never injury-free anyway.”

It’s not exactly a confidence instilling statement made by Froch, to be sure. Some boxing fans in the forums see Froch’s comments about never being injury free as his attempts for an excuse should things go bad for him on Saturday night against Kessler in their stage 2 Super Six tourney fight in Herning, Denmark. This is a fight that could very well go either way, as Kessler is a superb boxer/puncher with excellent boxing skills and the home field advantage for this fight. Kessler has never been beaten in Denmark, does well against stand up European fighters like Froch and has previously beaten a fighter very similar to Froch in Librado Andrade.

Froch believes that he will wear Kessler out in the 2nd half of the fight and with his better stamina eventually knock Kessler out at some point in the fight. This remains to be seen, because Froch has a lot of proving to do after his last fight against Andre Dirrell, a fight which Froch appeared to have lost by many accounts. Froch, fighting in his home city of Nottingham, England, won a controversial 12 round split decision.

Kessler was beaten in his first Super Six tournament bout against Andre Ward. That fight wasn’t close at all, as Ward dominated Kessler from the first round until the bout was eventually stopped due to two cuts over the eyes of Kessler in the 11th round. Kessler says that it wasn’t the real him out there that night against Ward and that he’s learned from the experience. He may or may not have learned anything, but Kessler has a totally different fighter in front of him this Saturday night, so it is irrelevant.

Kessler could end up easily beating the slower Froch whether he’s improved or not. Ward just seemed like a bad match-up for Kessler, a type of fighter he had never faced before in his career. Froch, on the other hand, is the exact kind of fighter that Kessler has done well against in the past and he’s well familiar with Froch’s upright fighting style.