By William Mackay: Sounding as confident as usual, former World Boxing Council super middleweight champion Carl Froch (26-1, 20 KO’s) is feeling positive about his next Super Six fight against former IBF middleweight champion Arthur Abraham (31-1, 25 KO’s) on October 2nd, in the stage 3 part of the Super Six tournament at the Chapiteau de Fontvieille, Principauté de Monaco, Monaco. Froch, 33, is no longer unbeaten, having lost to Mikkel Kessler last April by a 12 round unanimous decision. Now without a title, Froch wants to make sure that he can make it into the semifinals of the Super Six tournament so that he can try to avenge his loss to Kessler and get his WBC super middleweight title back at the same time.

In an interview at Livefight.com, Froch talks about his upcoming fight against Abraham, saying “It’s going to be probably the best fight this year and I will be part of it. There’s going to be a lot of polls, arguments and debates about who will come out as top dog between me and Arthur. His fans will claim their man will knock me out, but once he’s sent his best shots in and I’m still here, you’ll see a different look on his face. What else can you do when that fails to seal the deal?”

I don’t know if Froch is aware of this or not, but it appears that a lot of his own boxing fans are also picking Abraham to knock Froch out. I’ve read a lot of posts in internet forums where boxing fans say they’re fans of Froch but that they think Abraham is going to knock him out because of his big power and mostly because of Froch’s mediocre defense. I don’t see this as a situation where only Abraham fans think Froch is going to lose this one. Abraham is the kind of fighter where you absolutely have to protect your head at all times, because he’s going to lop it off if he’s allowed to tee off on you.

Froch, who fights with his hands down by his waist for some odd reason, is going to be an inviting target with his unprotected head. If Froch had blazing hand speed, quick reflexes and good foot speed, I would still be very concerned about him getting knocked cold by Abraham. With the kind of power that Abraham has, you have to protect yourself at all times, so it’s really important to keep your guard up. Froch doesn’t move, has slow hands and seems to react slowly to incoming fire, is going to be begging to get hit with Abraham’s monster shots all night long because of his tendency to keep his guard down.

But the problem is Froch probably won’t make it very far with his shoddy defense, not with Abraham clobbering him with sledgehammer blows one after another. Boxing fans like to say that Froch has a steel chin, but I don’t buy that. Froch has been hurt in his last three fights against Jermain Taylor, Andre Dirrell and Mikkel Kessler. Each one of those fighters staggered Froch, and none of them can punch like Abraham. I see Froch getting knocked cold in this fight unless he tries to protect his head a lot more than he’s done in the past.

Froch says “I’ve got a lot of support heading over this one. Quite a few general boxing fans are making the effort to come and see me for the first time. They will not be disappointed. I’m letting it all hang out in Monaco.” I think they will be disappointed if they’re coming to see Froch win. The fans will have no effect on this fight. Abraham seems to be one of those rare fighters that totally ignore fan noise and is only concerned with knocking out his opponent. I don’t think Froch knows what he’s getting himself into in this fight.