By Sean McDaniel: In super middleweight Carl Froch’s column at thisisnottingham.co.uk, he sums up the upcoming clashes between WBA heavyweight champion David Haye and Audley Harrison and the fight between World Boxing Association light welterweight champ Amir Khan and interim WBA champion Marcos Maidana. Froch, 33, has his own bout coming up on October 2nd against the hard hitting Arthur Abraham in the Super Six tournament at the Chapiteau de Fontvieille, Principauté de Monaco, Monaco.

Froch is leaning towards the 29-year-old Haye beating 38-year-old Harrison on November 13th. Froch notes that Harrison has power, but fails to let his hands go, saying “Audley’s a big heavyweight who can punch, but has failed to pull the trigger.” This was true up until recently. Harrison hasn’t had problems being reluctant about letting his hands go in the past year, as he’s won the Prizefighter tournament and then knocked out Michael Sprott. Whether Harrison will show the same kind of aggression against the always dangerous Haye is quite another matter.

Harrison might become timid again and look to just survive. I kind of doubt it, though, because Harrison has to know that his career is on the line and needs to fight all out if he expects to have any chance of beating the younger, faster and stronger Haye. Froch points out that Harrison has the bigger size compared to Haye, commenting “Many will say Audley is bigger, but Haye has already beaten the biggest heavyweight in history, that’s really irrelevant.”

Froch is talking about 7-foot former WBA heavyweight champion Nikolay Valuev, who Haye beat by a narrow 12 round majority decision in 2009. However, Valuev isn’t the biggest heavyweight in history. Not sure where Froch got that from. Gogea Mitu was 7’2″ 400 pounds, Julius Long is 7’1″, John Rankin, 7’4″ and Jim Cully 7’2″. Valuev is 7′, shorter than those fighters and smaller than the 7’2″ 400 pound Mitu. and Beating Valuev isn’t that big of a deal, though, because Valuev can’t punch and by the time that Haye fought him, Valuev was 36 and arguably not the same fighter he was three years earlier. Harrison is clearly a better puncher than Valuev. No one sees Valuev as a big knockout puncher, unless you’re counting his knockouts against mainly 2nd tier opposition.

Harrison is much more dangerous than Valuev, because Harrison can take out an opponent with either hand when he’s fighting with aggression. Froch says “I get the feeling along with everyone else, that it will be Haye’s mantelpiece it’s [the WBA heavyweight title] sitting on afterwards.” There’s no argument there. Harrison is a good safe fight for Haye, which is why boxing fans are critical of Haye for selecting him to fight rather than one of the Klitschko brothers or one of the top contenders like Odlanier Solis, Denis Boytsov or Alexander Povetkin. Harrison is nowhere near the same threat at the Klitschko brothers and should be an easy win for Haye. But you never know, because Harrison can punch and Haye’s chin isn’t that great.

As for the Khan vs. Maidana fight, which is expected to take place on December 11th, Froch says this about it: “Maidana is crude and lacks finesse. But he is tough stuff and can punch with almost all his wins coming by KO. Khan’s game has improved since his first round demolition defeat to another crude, but hard hitting opponent. I think he’s [Khan’] matured as a fighter and will box his way to a decision, but it will be interesting to see if Maidana connects.”

There’s little question that Maidana will connect at some point in the fight with something big. Although Khan has the power to take Maidana out, he would have to risk getting hit for him to load up on his shots. If Maidana can get close enough to land his short power punches, he can big damage to Khan’s world. Maidana has the kind of power where he could knock Khan out even in a clinch. This is a very dangerous fight for Khan, and it’s going to be interesting to see if he’ll even take it.