by Joseph Hirsch: Whatever your feelings about Carl “the Cobra” Froch, he holds the most impressive single win in the “Super Six” tournament, and that is his victory over Jean Pascal. Pascal will be facing the best light-heavyweight alive this Fall, Chad Dawson. If Pascal somehow overcomes the odds and beats Dawson, that will only make Froch’s victory look that much more spectacular in hindsight.

Notwithstanding everything that is good about the Cobra, his heart, his chin, and his power, these assets are only worth their weight if his opponent stays in the pocket with him and bangs. Like a lot of hard hitters, lateral movement, or excessive movement of any kind gives Froch fits. Whether or not you believe he deserved his decision over Andre Dirrell, the “Matrix” embarrassed him with his slipping and rolling, making Froch look clumsy in spurts, when Dirrell wasn’t embarrassing himself with excessive backpedaling.

“Awkward” does not sound like a compliment, but it is in boxing. With his hunchbacked stance, and his shoulder-based defense, Froch is the definition of awkward. His offense is equally tricky. His punches come from strange angles, part up-jab, part uppercut; he is a very difficult man to read.

His next opponent, Arthur Abraham, presents an equally challenging style. He stays in a shell, his gloves by his ears, allows his opponent to unload while studying them, and then releases usually in the last thirty seconds of a round. Many of his shots are wide and miss the mark, but he is very much a one-punch knockout artist. His KOs are not the kind where his opponent hits the canvas and struggles to their feet. His knockouts send you to the hospital, where the light is flashed in your eyes as you struggle to remember your name.

Both men were undefeated before their last fight, and both are wounded lions. But there is no doubt in my mind that Abraham, and not Froch, will be out for blood when they meet in Monaco in October. The blueprint for beating Abraham, or at least keeping him at bay, has been laid out by Andre Dirrell. But Froch won’t follow that blueprint.

Froch fancies himself a warrior and prefers an inside brawl, trading leather, and essentially absorbing one blow for one, until the tide turns and he is dominant. This technique has seen him in good stead against Jermaine Taylor, and it may have even been enough for him to have clinched a victory over Mikkel Kessler if their fight had taken place in Nottingham. But it is a recipe for disaster against a wounded lion like Abraham.

The “King” knows what another victory will do for him in this tournament, and he will be dangerously motivated when he steps into the ring. He may follow his standard approach, letting Froch unload on him for the first two or three rounds, remaining in his shell, gauging his opponent’s power, and studying him for openings. Froch will have a significant point lead going into the fourth, and the announcers and Froch’s corner may believe the night will continue in this fashion, until probably the fifth round, when Abraham starts to open up and throw a wide volley of shots.

Most of them might not connect, but as Abraham has proven in the past, it only takes one to close the show. Whether that one comes in the fifth round, or the tenth, or the twelfth, it will eventually come, and Froch will taste a kind of power he has never felt before. It is at this point that he will realize that the style of fighting he has never respected, the “running” of someone like Andre Dirrell, might not be the worst skill to acquire.

Froch is not, as his opponents label him, one-dimensional, nor is he only capable of brawling. If he wished to train differently, to incorporate slick movement and a few “bicycle” tactics into his arsenal, he could probably do it. But, as he said after his fight with Andre Dirrell, looking forward to his match with Mikkel Kessler: “There is a proud warrior who will stand and fight.”

This author is not religious, but might I suggest a bit of scripture for Froch to mull over?

“The pride goes before the fall…” -Proverbs 16:18