By Scott Gilfoid: Former World Boxing Council super middleweight champion Carl Froch (26-1, 20 KO’s) says he will consider retirement if he loses his stage 3 Super Six tournament fight to power puncher Arthur Abraham (31-1, 25 KO’s), whom he fights in September at a still to be determined location. Froch was defeated by Denmark’s Mikkel Kessler last month on April 24th by a close 12 round unanimous decision in their stage 2 Super Six tourney bout. Froch, not comfortable at all with losing, felt that he should have won the fight and believe that he would have been given the decision had the fight taken place in his home city of Nottingham, England.
While there are a small portion of boxing fans who believe Froch should have received the decision in the Kessler fight, a seemingly larger portion believe that that the final decision was correct with Kessler winning. Froch says “The next fight is all or nothing for me,” in an article at The Sun.. “If it doesn’t go my way I will seriously consider retirement because I’m only interested in big title fights. I won’t hang around at domestic level.“
The chances of Froch beating Abraham aren’t that good, unfortunately. If Froch had a sound defense and was able to move a little and protect himself, he would have a much better chance of beating a big slugger like Abraham. However, Froch keeps his hands down by his waste when he fights, is very slow in movements and hand speed and tends to take a lot of shots to the head – at least since he started participating in the Super Six. Prior to the Super Six tournament, Froch had only taken a couple of tough fights where he was hit a lot, but the quality of opposition in the Super Six tournament is just too good.
And with Froch fighting with his hands down by his waist at all times, he’s getting hit again and again with bone jarring shots that are landing cleanly. This perhaps a lot to do with him losing to Kessler. It wans’t that Froch was getting out-worked by all that much, it was more a case of him getting hit cleanly with shots because he had his hands down. It looked really bad. Froch also wasn’t helped in that he seemed to get lazy in the middle rounds, a time when he looked tired and lead footed. Kessler dominated those rounds. Froch did come on in the last two rounds, but those rounds were pretty even and he didn’t distinquish himself as being better than Kessler in the very end.
Froch says “I’m going to fight on my terms and I won’t be pushed around this time. The hometown decisions in this competition have been a disgrace so I not going to Berlin because there’s no chance of getting a verdict. I won’t be going anywhere east of Nottingham to fight Abraham and it won’t be in Showtime’s interest for me to pull out.”
It’s hard to tell what hometown decisions Froch is talking about, other than his win over the talented Andre Dirrell last October in Nottingham. As far as I can tell, that’s the only hometown decision that has taken place in the tournament. Froch couldn’t be talking about Andre Ward’s win over Kessler last October, because that was as one-sided a fight that I’ve ever seen. There were some head butts in the fight, but even if Ward had been penalized for them, Kessler still would have lost the fight. Did Froch see that fight as close enough for Kessler to win? Dirrell’s win over Abraham doesn’t qualify as a hometown decision because Abraham was disqualified for hitting Dirrell while he was down.
All I can see in the tournament that would really be considered a hometown decision is Froch’s win over Dirrell. I think Froch could win a decision if he fought in Germany, but not if he keeps using his head to block punches. He won’t win that way. It’s sad that he’s threatening to pull out because of that. I think Abraham would have to knock Froch out to beat him in Nottingham, so it all equals out, I suppose. Anyway, their talking about the fight taking place in Switzerland, a neutral country, so Froch probably has nothing to worry about.
Froch says this about the Kessler fight: “I have watched and scored it myself and reckon I won by two or three rounds. But that’s the risk you run when you defend on foreign soil.” I don’t know what Froch is talking about. I saw the same fight and had Kessler winning by two rounds, even after giving Froch a couple of rounds that I considered even. Most of the other rounds looked to be either clear cut rounds for Kessler or Froch. It was an easy fight to score. Froch wants to fight Kessler again in the tournament. “I’d love to get him in the semis because I know how to beat him now,” Froch says.
He does? Well, Froch sure did a great job of beating him, didn’t he? I think Kessler will beat Froch even easier next time out, because he seems to really have his number and knows how to beat him with combinations. Unless Froch starts protecting his lantern jaw by picking up his gloves and positioning then around his face, he’s going to keep getting drilled in the tournament. But as far as Froch fighting Kessler again in the tourney, I don’t see it happening. I see Froch getting drummed out of the tournament by Abraham in September. Froch has too many habits that he needs to change in his fighting style and I can’t see him making those changes before September.
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