By Scott Gilfoid: Andre Dirrell thinks that former WBC super middleweight champion Carl Froch (26-1, 20 KO’s) will have major problems with the punching power of his next opponent Arthur Abraham (31-1, 25 KO’s) in his Super Six tourney fight in September. On Friday Night Fights, Dirrell had this to say about Froch:
“Carl Froch is susceptible to a lot of hits and a lot of punishment. He prides himself on taking punches, but Arthur Abraham is one with a strong, strong punch, an even handed guy with great ability and he’s very fast with his hands. I see a knockout, if not in one or two then five or six. If Carl Froch doesn’t want to take a lot of punishment, I believe he will get stopped that night. He’s [Abraham] a very tough fighter. He’s very fast. He comes forward with great defense. So that can throw a fighter off as well. And he has great punching ability, and Carl Froch doesn’t have great defense. We all know this. Once he gets hit with one of Abraham’s shots, he better have a Plan B and a Plan C, otherwise he’s going to lose that fight by knockout.”
I absolutely agree with Dirrell. Although there is a perception by some boxing fans that Froch can’t be knocked out, I see him getting badly hurt and knocked out by Abraham unless Froch fixes his defense by the time he fights Abraham. Even then, I think there’s a high chance that Froch will still get knocked out, mainly because his tendency to want to trade shots. Froch will go right into the teeth of Abraham’s offense and be there for his big punches when he starts up his offense at some point in the fight.
I doubt that Abraham will score a 1st or 2nd knockout, though, because he’s often a slow starter, but I think Froch will make it easy for him once he does start throwing his bombs. I seriously doubt that Froch will change his bad habit of keeping his hands down by his waist by the time he fights Abraham. I think Froch will likely fight that way for the remainder of his career.
As such, Froch will have to depend on his chin to take Abraham’s massive shots. It’s all well and good that Froch has been able to take some massive shots in his last three fights against Jermain Taylor, Andre Dirrell and Mikkel Kessler, but it can’t be doing him any good to be getting hit so cleanly and so often with bone jarring shots again and again. If Froch has to take massive shots from Abraham for 12 rounds, I think his chin will finally betray him and he’ll wind up getting knocked out.
It’s too bad, because another loss for Froch will knock him out of the Super Six tournament and I was hoping he’d stick around long enough for me to see a rematch between him and Dirrell. Froch beat the talented Dirrell by a questionable 12 round split decision last year in October in a fight that was held in Froch’s home city of Nottingham, England. Two of the European judges scored the decision for Froch, while the third gave it to Dirrell. In his last fight, Froch lost a 12 round unanimous decision to Kessler on April 24th in Kessler’s home country of Denmark. Froch thought he won the fight.
I thought he clearly lost the fight. Froch now doesn’t want to fight Abraham in Germany for fear of not being able to win a decision there. As of now, no one knows where their fight will take place. There has been talk of it happening in Switzerland, but Froch is still trying to get the fight to take place in Nottingham in a football stadium. I don’t think it really matters where it takes place. I see Froch getting knocked out by Abraham whether it is in Nottingham, Switzerland or Germany. Abraham hits too hard and Froch is wide open defensively and very hittable.
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