Froch sees Ward as his biggest challenge in the Super Six tourney

By Boxing News - 04/01/2010 - Comments

Image: Froch sees Ward as his biggest challenge in the Super Six tourneyBy Scott Gilfoid: Having struggled badly with Andre Dirrell and still a fight ahead against former WBA/WBC super middleweight champion Mikkel Kessler on April 24th, World Boxing Council super middleweight champion Carl Froch (26-0, 21 KO’s) says that he sees Andre Ward as hei biggest challenge in the Super Six tournament. In an article at Sport.co, Froch, when asked who his biggest challenger is in the Super Six tournament, says “I’ve got to say Ward. He beat Mikkel Kessler and he’s now the WBA champion.”

It’s interesting how Froch seems to be overlooking Kessler, as if it’s a forgone conclusion that Froch is going to be able to get past him on April 24th. I see that as a very tough fight for Froch, one that I don’t know that he has enough talent to win. In addition to that, Froch still has a fight coming up against Arthur Abraham in their stage 3 Super Six tournament fight later in 2010. That’s a huge obstacle for Froch because of Abraham’s big power. Froch likes to go directly at his opponents, which would probably be the wrong thing to do against a big puncher like Abraham.

Froch has gone through three consecutive grueling 12 round fights, but instead of seeing this as something that could be taking something out of him. Froch sees it as a good thing, saying “It’s good for your fitness. It only takes it out of your career if you’re getting banjoed with big shots on the chin and you’re wobbled, cut or your nose broken.” Froch may not remember this, but he was stunned by Dirrell in their last October, badly staggered by a straight left hand from him.

Froch may have forgot that big shot that Dirrell landed. That couldn’t have helped Froch any, could it? Froch hasn’t fought since that time and we won’t know whether his chin was effected or not by Dirrell’s shot until the punches start flying against Kessler on April 24th. Frankly, I wouldn’t be the least surprised if Froch goes down hard against Kessler early on as soon as he catches his first big shot in the fight. Froch is going to have to hope that his chin wasn’t compromised from the big power shots that Dirrell was landing in the past three rounds of their fight, because I don’t think it’s a good thing to running into those kinds of massive punches. It can’t be good. Dirrell hits too hard.

Froch was also put down by a huge right hand in the third round in his fight last year against Jermain Taylor. Froch looked hurt that shot. Froch says “The Dirrell fight was an easy night’s work to be honest. I went running the next day to get rid of some energy, because it was just too easy.” Too easy, eh? Dirrell staggers Froch, beats him in the minds of many people, and Froch is calling it an easy night. How can it be easy when Froch isn’t landing his punches and getting tagged all night long?



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