By Sean McDaniel: Former WBC super middleweight champion Carl Froch (26-1, 20 KO’s) is convinced that he’s going to defeat former International Boxing Federation (IBF) middleweight champion Arthur Abraham (31-1, 25 Ko’s) in their Super Six tournament battle on October 2nd, at the Chapiteau de Fontvieille, Principauté de Monaco, Monaco. The fight is being held in Monaco because Froch didn’t feel that he could win a decision if he were to travel to Germany and fight Abraham in Berlin. Instead of finding a country that is right nearby, the two fighters have settled for Monaco.

This may play into Abraham’s hands, because his fans have already purchased a large amount of tickets for the fight and are ready to make the trek to watch him fight. Froch, 34, is very confident about his chances of winning this fight. He’s coming off of a disappointing 12 round unanimous decision to Mikkel Kessler in his last Super Six fight in April, and he wants to reverse that loss by beating Abraham.

Froch says “I am going to let my fist do the talking but there will be only one winner on the night. There is no way that Abraham is going to beat me.” Froch is going to have to try outwork Abraham, because he’s not likely going to be able to punch as hard as him. The way to beat Abraham is to jab and move and try to avoid his flurries in the last portions of the rounds. Abraham is pretty predictable in what he does. He’s basically been fighting the same way for the past couple of years, as he’s aged and his work rate has dropped off.

Earlier in his career, Abraham was able to fight hard for three minutes of every round. But as he’s aged, he’s now essentially limited to throwing shots in the last 25 to 30 seconds of every round. He’s very dangerous when he’s letting his hands go, to be sure. But he gives away huge portions of every round by just standing and covering up and waiting. Froch should be able to pile land a lot of significant shots before Abraham starts throwing his own leather.

If Froch is clever, he’ll try and get out of the way of Abraham in the last 30 seconds of the round. Even if it means that Froch has to play keep away, he might want to do that to avoid losing rounds and also to save himself from getting knocked out. It’s doubtful that Abraham will make any changes with his style of fighting.

It’s beyond training at this point. He just doesn’t seem to have the stamina to fight hard early in the rounds without gassing out. For this reason, Froch need to stick and move and try to land most of his stuff early. Abraham looks so ferocious when he’s attacking in the final seconds of each round that he’s often able to win the rounds even when he’s missing the majority of his punches. The judges are impressed just watching him swing.