By Scott Gilfoid: We’ve seen WBC super middleweight champion Mikkel Kessler and Allan Green bowing out of the Super Six tournament in the past week, and we now or left with only four fighters out of the original six for the Super Six tournament. Former WBC super middleweight champion Carl Froch (26-1, 20 KO’s) may be the next one to go, as he has a tough bout against knockout artist Arthur Abraham (31-1, 25 KO’s) on October 2nd, at the Chapiteau de Fontvieille, Principauté de Monaco, Monaco.

This fight is now effectively a semifinal fight, meaning that it’s a do-or-die bout with the loser being eliminated from the Super Six tournament. There’s supposed to be a fight scheduled between Americans Andre Ward and Andre Dirrell a week earlier on September 25th, but it’s looking that fight will be postponed because there is still no venue for the bout and it doesn’t look like there will be one found anytime soon. As such, the Froch vs. Abraham loser will be the next one to go from the Super Six tournament to be sent home to lick their wounds in the comforts of their home countries.

I wish I could say that I thought Froch was going to win this fight, because I would like nothing more than to see him in the finals against Dirrell or Ward but I just don’t see Froch getting past Abraham. For that to happen, Froch will have to change his style fighting completely and become more Dirrell-like with his fighting style. Dirrell already showed how to beat Abraham in his dominating performance against him earlier this year in March 2010. Dirrell dazzled Abraham for 10 rounds, making him look like a rank amateur during most of the fight. But in the 11th, Abraham appeared to lose his cool when he tagged a defenseless Dirrell after he had slipped on the canvas.

The punch , which Dirrell had no way of defending against or even predicting, gave Dirrell a bad concussion and knocked him out momentarily. Abraham was disqualified for the illegal blow and now has his first loss on his record. Froch will have to try and be just like Dirrell if he wants to beat Abraham. Froch can’t fight in his usual straight up European style, because he’s too wide open for shots because he keeps his hands down by his waist most of the time. This is the style that fighters with lightning like reflexes tend to use, not slow fighters like Froch.

It’s something that Froch should have changed immediately after his fight with Jermain Taylor last year when it became clear that the better fighters are going to take advantage of his low guard and pound him 24/7. But Froch stuck with the low guard and looked bad in his fight with Dirrell, appearing to lose the fight by many accounts. I personally had Froch losing eight rounds to three with one even. But the bout was in Froch’s home city of Nottingham, England, and he ended up getting the nod by two of the European judges.

I don’t know if Froch is capable of copying Dirrell’s style of fighting because you would think that a prerequisite to using Dirrell’s style is to have amazing hand speed and talent. The last time I checked, Froch was about as slow as molasses, moved like a slug around the ring and had a nasty habit of leading with his chin. But Froch is a smart fighter and I think if anyone can copy Dirrell’s style, it could be him. He’s going to have to un-learn all the things that he’s been taught in the past about fighting and start from scratch. If he doesn’t copy Dirrell’s style completely to the letter, then I see Froch getting knocked out by Abraham. But I think he has a small chance if he’s smart to beat Abraham if he gets Dirrell’s style down completely.