Froch looks nervous at weigh-in: Has he mentally lost already?

By Scott Gilfoid: I have a feeling that we may be seeing the early signs of World Boxing Council (WBC) super middleweight champion Carl Froch (26-0, 20 KO’s) crumbling before the first punch has been thrown against Mikkel Kessler (42-2, 32 KO’s) in Saturday night’s stage 2 Super Six tournament fight in Herning, Denmark. At today’s weigh-in, a nervous looking Froch seemed ill at ease when standing eye to eye with the confident looking Kessler and continued to look very uncomfortable even after the two stopped the stare down and faced the audience.

Kessler looked completely in his element, smiling, flexing his muscles and drinking in the loud cheers and applause from the pro-Kessler media crowd. Froch, on the other hand, was loudly booed the whole time with one person repeatedly shouting “You suck” over and over again. This was just a taste for what Froch will be experiencing tomorrow night when he enters the ring at the MCH Messecenter Herning, in Herning, Denmark.

There will be huge crowd that will be booing Froch the entire fight, and he’s going to be in for a world of hurt tomorrow night against Kessler. In looking at how nervous and uncomfortable Froch appears, I think he’s already lost the fight mentally. Froch looks psyched out to me and about to go to his beating tomorrow night. Now it’s real for him, and he’s going to have to put or shut up.

I don’t think Froch will be up to the task, I hate to say. Kessler looks primed like a champion facing a scared challenger. Apparently, Froch and Kessler are friend of some sorts. Well, there won’t be any friendship tomorrow night when the punches start flying. I see Kessler as having way too much boxing skills for Froch to deal with. He’s on another level in terms of skills, and I can’t see how Froch will be competitive, especially in looking at how nervous he was in the weigh-in.
Froch says that Kessler has never fought anyone like him before in his career. Wrong! Kessler already dominated Librado Andrade, a Carl Froch clone, in 2007. This is going to be a probable repeat of that fight with Kessler picking off Froch all night long with pinpoint jabs and right hands to the head.

In his last fight, Froch beat Andre Dirrell by a 12 round split decision. I thought Dirrell won easily 8 rounds to 3 with 1 even. I saw the fight as so one-sided that I was actually bored by watching by the 10th round. It was a masterful performance by Dirrell, and one of the best that I’ve seen in my life. Froch won’t have to deal with Dirrell on Saturday night, luckily for him, but Froch will still have his hands full with technically skilled Kessler.

Mikkel does everything perfect – punch, move, jab and defend. The only areas where Kessler needs work is on the inside, where he’s not particularly good, and with his hand speed. However, Kessler isn’t facing a fast puncher on Saturday night with the slow punching Froch and will be able to see Froch’s badly telegraphed punches from a mile away. This will make things a lot easier for Kessler to pound the British fighter from long distance without getting hit in return.