By Scott Gilfoid: I can’t say I like Carl Froch’s chances going into his next Super Six tournament fight against Arthur Abraham on October 2nd at the Chapiteau de Fontvieille, Principauté de Monaco, Monaco. Out of all the opponents that I’ve seen fight Abraham in the past, Froch seems to be the most perfectly suited victim of all the ones I’ve seen. The fighter that comes closest to be the perfect opponent for Abraham, besides Froch, was Edison Miranda. Abraham destroyed Miranda in a 4th round knockout in their rematch in June 2008. In their first fight, Abraham had to deal with a broken jaw that he suffered early in the fight and this got in the way of him being able to fight at his best.

However, I seriously doubt that Abraham will be suffering any injuries against Froch on October 2nd, and therefore I think Froch is going to be in for some serious hurting unless he changes his fighting style dramatically by the time they step in the ring on the 2nd of October. Froch says he’s been studying the blueprint made by American Andre Dirrell in his win over Abraham last March. Dirrell dominated Abraham for 10 rounds, and the 11th, Abraham leveled Dirrell after he had slipped and fell on the canvas. While down, Dirrell was hit with a big right hand from Abraham and knocked unconscious momentarily.

The punch led to Abraham being disqualified and Dirrell given the win. But as far as Froch goes, unless he’s really good at mimicking the fighting style of Dirrell, I think Froch is going to get knocked flat by Abraham in this fight. Froch prides himself by his ability to mix it up with his opponent, to take their best shots and fire back his own power shots. Up until Froch began taking on better opponents recently, Froch was usually able to easily beat his European counterparts.

However, Froch has been struggling since last year in his fights with Jermain Taylor and Andre Dirrell. Froch won the Taylor fight with a knockout in the last seconds of the 12th round, and would have lost had he not stopped Taylor. And in the Dirrell fight, Froch appeared to lose the fight, but was given the decision by the judges while fighting in front of a home crowd in Nottingham, England. In Froch’s next fight in the Super Six tournament, he was beaten by Mikkel Kessler by a 12 round unanimous decision and ended up losing his World Boxing Council super middleweight title in the fight.

Froch wants to avenge the defeat to Kessler and also wants to recapture his WBC title. However, the chances of that happening will disappear in an instant if Abraham is able to beat Froch come October 2nd. Froch can’t afford to lose this fight if he wants to make it to the next round of the Super Six tournament. But with Abraham’s big power, and Froch’s tendency to use his head as a third glove, I just don’t like Froch’s chances of making it to the semifinals of the Super Six tournament. I really don’t think Froch is going to be able to change his fighting style. I think he may be able to somewhat imitate Dirrell for about 20 to 30 seconds of the 1st round, but after that I see Froch slipping back into his normal style of fighting, dropping his gloves, standing straight up in a typical European fighting stance and leading with his lantern jaw. Abraham, seeing Froch’s head unprotected, is going to promptly knock him.