By Scott Gilfoid: Former World Boxing Council super middleweight champion Carl Froch (26-1, 20 KO’s) seems to be still thinking about his recent loss to Mikkel Kessler last April. Froch, 33, lost that fight by a close 12 round unanimous decision in Herning, Denmark. Froch still believes that he should have won that fight, and that he would have had the fight taken place in his home city of Nottingham, England.
Froch now has to beat his next Super Six tournament opponent former IBF middleweight champion Arthur Abraham (31-1, 25 KO’s) on October 2nd at the Chapiteau de Fontvielle, Principaute de Monaco, in Monaco. Froch needs a win here for him to make it to the semifinals of the Super Six tourney, so that he can have a chance of avenging his painful defeat to Kessler.
In an article at Livefight.com, Froch says “He [Abraham] going in with a real puncher now so he’s going to find out if he belongs in this division or not. If I start catching him, it would be all over. After I beat Abraham, I’ve got Mikkel Kessler in America. There’s a fight I’m looking forward to and I don’t think Mikkel Kessler is looking forward to it.”
Kessler seemed to handle himself pretty well in his fight against Froch. Kessler was the one that was the aggressor through most of the fight, and the fighter who was getting the best of most of the exchanges. Froch just looked tired for the most part and seemed tentative, as if he was worried about getting hit with Kessler’s shots.
I think Froch needs to focus more on trying to survive the Abraham fight without getting his head torn off, because Abraham has proved to be a lethal puncher in his first two fights of the Super Six tournament. Abraham was hit plenty hard in his last fight in the Super Six tournament against Andre Dirrell, and was even knocked down once.
It looked like Abraham should have been dropped a second time in the fight, because he fell on the lower ropes after getting hit with a hard right hand from Dirrell at one point in the fight. It’s doubtful that Abraham will be bothered by Froch’s shots, if he was able to get through 10 rounds of taking Dirrell’s powerful punches last March.
Abraham was disqualified in the 11th round of that fight for hitting Dirrell after he had slipped on the canvas and was in a sitting position. Now with a loss on his record, Abraham is going to likely be in a foul mood when he enters the ring to fight Froch on October 2nd, and I think Froch is going to be wishing he was fighting Kessler again before long.
If Froch isn’t worried about Abraham’s big power shots, then he really needs to and fast. Froch, with his tendency to fight with his guard down by his waist, he’s going to be a sitting duck for Abraham’s punches all night. It’s nice that Froch prides himself for having a sturdy chin, but he hasn’t been hit in the past like he will against Abraham.
It may not matter whether Froch’s chin is the greatest thing since sliced bread if he’s taking clean shots from Abraham all night long. It’s not healthy to take those kinds of shots and I don’t that it’s possible to fight Abraham for 12 rounds with him teeing off on Froch’s head nonstop. Something will have to give and I don’t think it’s going to be Abraham’s gloves.
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