by Ronnie Jordan: Due to the unforeseen circumstances of Mikkel Kessler’s eye injury, the Super Six Tournament was forced into the semifinal knock out stage earlier than planned. Carl “The Cobra” Froch (26-1, 20 KO’s) will be gearing up to face King Arthur Abraham (31-1, 25 KO’s) on October 2nd at the chateau de Fontviellie in Monaco for a place in the semifinal match. Many are predicting this to be the most entertaining and vicious fight of the tournament, with the match up of two such aggressive attacking fighters.

Froch is coming off a close 12 round decision loss to Kessler on April 24th in Herning Denmark, a fight which Froch felt he did enough to win, adamantly claiming he was a victim of a hometown decision. Froch struggles against counter punchers with quick hands and good movement and was exposed by Andre Dirrell. But against Kessler, he was matched punch for punch in an all out brawl. Kessler didn’t take a backwards step which you would think would play right into Froch’s hands. However, it seemed Carl wasn’t quite up to another Jean Pascal type tear up, and whether he was affected by the late flight to Denmark or not he lacked a sense of urgency. .

Froch’s lack of speed should cause problems for himself against world class opposition and to some extent it does, but he counters that by having a granite chin and massive heart. Because he trusts his chin, he keeps his hands low and fighters are lured into firing range where Carl can cause real damage with his strength and power. Pascal who has since proven to be one of the best fighters in the world probably underestimated Froch and played right into his hands. Kessler however fought a much smarter fight keeping his guard up and popping in and out with fast combinations and although he didn’t fight the perfect fight he kept disciplined with his defence and busy with his attack and most saw him as a deserved winner.

So how will Froch fair up against a completely different style all together. Abraham doesn’t have the energy and sharp combinations of Kessler, nor does he posses the fast hands and movement of Dirrell. He does, however, hit harder than anyone else in the Super Six and a lot will depend on Froch’s ability to take his shots. What bodes well for Froch in this fight is Abraham’s low activity and lack of movement. Carl will have time to land his hard strait right and looping uppercut. Froch has heavy hands and if he can find gaps through that crab like defence he could cause Abraham some problems. What I’d like to see from Froch is some real aggression from round one. He needs to impose himself and maybe even rough Abraham up a little. He can’t allow Arthur to get into his comfort zone because he just gets stronger and stronger as the fight goes on and carries great power into the later rounds. My guess is unless Froch covers up during a sustained attack, he will get ko’d late in the fight. This is the worry that because Carl trusts his chin so much he will try and take Abraham’s shots all night. What he should realize is Abraham hits a lot harder than Dirrell, Jermain Taylor and Pascal and eventually the punishment Abraham dishes out will catch up with him.

So to recap, I feel for Carl to win this fight he needs to keep busy, use his strength to rough him up and remember GLOVES are for blocking punches not your chin