By Scott Gilfoid: In Carl Froch’s latest column at Thisisnottingham.co.uk, Froch talked about meeting up with Mikkel Kessler at the World Boxing Council (WBC) Night of Champions in Cardiff, saying “I told Kessler that he had to beat Allan Green in his next fight to guarantee himself being the semi-final of the [Super Six] tournament, so that after I’ve eliminated Arthur Abraham from the show, we can get the rematch.”
What Froch fails to say is that he also is in the same position where he needs a win in his next fight against Abraham for him to make it to the semi-finals. And Froch has the much harder task ahead of him compared to Kessler, who can probably beat Green in his sleep. Froch is going to be incredibly lucky to make it out of the Abraham fight without getting knocked out or at the minimum knocked around by him.
I don’t give Froch much of a chance to beat Abraham unless he comes out looking very un-Froch like. Since old dogs usually aren’t able to learn new things, I see Froch fighting pretty much how he always does and will start slugging after messing around with some boxing in the first minute of the 1st round. Believe me, it takes ages for most fighters to make small changes in their style of fighting and when you get up there in age, it’s almost impossible for a fighter to change. Froch will probably come out with his arms drooping in front of him like wet noodles and Abraham will immediately commence to pounding him at will.
Froch also mentioned meeting Joe Calzaghe at the event. It was nothing interesting, though. Froch says Calzaghe congratulated Froch on the birth of his son, about being finished with boxing before the Super Six tournament started and then picked – or attempted – to pick Froch up in a “fireman’s lift.” Froch thinks Calzaghe may have hurt himself trying to life him.
Other than that, Froch mentioned some training strategies that he’s using for his next Super Six fight against Abraham, saying “We’re working on a new approach to take apart Abraham piece by piece with angles and punches he won’t expect. I’ve noticed that while Abraham likes to dish it out, he doesn’t like to receive it. I noticed he doesn’t like shots to the body at all. In fact, he seems to have his shorts pulled up very high indeed on his hips and complains to the referee whenever one lands on his usually high borderline.”
Yeah, I noticed that Abraham doesn’t like body shots a long time ago and so did Andre Dirrell, who just finished beating Abraham in his last fight by the way. Froch previously mentioned wanting to follow Dirrell’s blue print to try and beat Abraham. I imagine that’s exactly what Froch is doing now. Studying the Dirrell-Abraham fight with a fine tooth comb and trying to mimic what Dirrell did. I’m sorry, but I can’t see Froch using angles, throwing punches from places Abraham won’t be expecting or being anything other than Froch.
Actually, I can see Froch throwing punches from places where Abraham won’t be expecting them. If they get close, Froch may tee off with some nice clubbing shots to the back of Abraham’s head. I doubt he’ll be expecting those kinds of punches. I hope this fight is fought more cleanly than the Froch-Dirrell and the Abraham-Dirrell fight. I don’t know what it is about Dirrell, but it seems to bring out the worst in fighters.
I guess it’s because he’s so fast, so elusive and hard to hit. But that’s why they call him the “Matrix.” If Froch tries to land body shots, he’s going to be leaving his head exposed even more than it already is for Abraham’s huge shots. It’ll be too easy for Abraham to knock Froch out then. My advice is for Froch to leave Abraham’s body alone.
Dirrell was able to get away with landing body shots against Abraham, but then again Dirrell has blazing hand speed and cat-like reflexes to avoid Abraham’s attempts at landing counter shots. Froch doesn’t have Dirrell’s speed or defense and will likely get his head blasted into the third row if he tries to land body shots.
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