By William Mackay: Before tickets can be put on sale for the October 2nd Super Six stage 3 tournament bout between former WBC super middleweight champion Carl Froch (26-1, 20 KO’s) and Arthur Abraham (31-1, 25 KO’s), the Prince of Monaco, Albert II, must approve the fight, according to boxing news from the Mirror.co.uk. The bout will be taking place at the Chapieteau de Fontvielle casino. This is the neutral venue that Froch insisted on, because he didn’t want to fight Abraham in Germany for fear that he wouldn’t be able to win a decision if the fight went to the cards.

In turn, Abraham didn’t want to fight Froch in his home city of Nottingham after seeing how American Andre Dirrell lost a controversial decision that many boxing fans felt that Dirrell should have won. Now Abraham and Froch have to wait for the Royal approval before tickets can go on sale for the bout. Froch and Abraham need this win to guarantee them a place in the semifinals of the Super Six tournament. Both Froch and Abraham lost their last fights and don’t want to have a repeat of that experience.

Froch’s promoter, Mick Hennessy, said “We have to go through the motions, but Carl has started sparring. Froch needs a lot of work on his defense because he’s been hit a lot in his last three fights against Jermain Taylor, Andre Dirrell and Mikkel Kessler. If this was one of Froch’s typical opponents before coming into the Super Six tournament, then it wouldn’t be such a big deal about his defensive problems. But Abraham is one of the biggest punchers in the super middleweight division and Froch can’t afford to let a big puncher like Abraham land his shots all night because sooner or later, Froch’s chin is going to give out on him. It may be this fight if he’s not careful.