By Mark Hepplestall: (Photo Tom Casino / Showtime:) The most underrated boxer in the super six tournament, Carl Froch beat Arthur Abraham via 12 rounds unanimous points decision in a fight were crude boxing showed its flaws and boxing skills were praised.

Carl Froch was the heavy underdog because of Abraham’s great power that made him well known at middleweight. Another reason froch was the underdog was because he fights with his chin exposed by leaving his left hand down, however all his critics were shown that his style works and he has great movement, hand speed and a granite chin.

But where did Froch win the fight and were did Abraham lose it? Well mentally Abraham was not the same, he had the fight moved from Nottingham to Berlin until Showtime wouldn’t allow it and then staged it at a neutral venue in Helsinki, Froch developed a back problem and Abraham condemned Froch for asking for the fight to be postponed and lastly Abraham underestimated Froch massively. Abraham thought like many others that Froch would stand in front of Abraham while he throws hooks and hayemakers. That was not how Froch got a silver medal at the commonwealth games as an amateur.

Physically Froch was much taller than Abraham and he carries the weight of 75.8kg better then Abraham no doubt. Froch had range; he made his jab dominate the fight at range for the whole 12 rounds. In fact there were times were a very bemused and confused Abraham had no idea what to do and just steamrolled into Froch to find his head thrown back by a huge jab, this fight could seriously be shown to youngsters to show them how to box. Froch was so much quicker then Abraham it was unreal, Froch beat Abraham to the punch at every opportunity, by the end of round 6 Froch had won all rounds and landed 10 punches or more to every 1 punch Abraham landed. Froch also had much better stamina then any of the boxers Abraham has fought in his career, Froch was still throwing and moving continuously for all 12 rounds while Abraham by round 10 had his jaw hanging low gasping for air, or this could have been a defect from the operation he had years after the Miranda fight which results in swollen glands and jaw-line.

But where did Abraham lose the fight? The guy had the same plan he had for the Taylor fight and Dirrel fight which was to cover up and lose the first 4 to 6 rounds, and steamroll forward in the second half of the fight hoping Froch would tire himself out, which he never did. Abraham then never had a plan B, C, D etc. He was so sure he was going to knock Froch out he thought he didn’t have to turn up. Most importantly he was incredibly one dimensional, he never threw a straight jab throughout the fight that landed, in the later rounds he did connect with a few hooks but they were all he threw all throughout the fight, Froch on the other hand landed jabs, 3 and 4 shot combinations, uppercuts, body shots etc.

Lastly the refereeing and judging was top notch from the neutral Americans, they were particularly under scrutiny as some decisions in the tournament have been very pro home boxers. In the later rounds Abraham had a good moan at the referee for a low blow landed by Froch, this was just after Abraham had landed a great elbow shot and in the 12th for a rabbit punch after he landed one on Froch 30 seconds earlier.

Overall the better boxer won, it was a fight that showed skills will prevail over one dimensional, flat footed and epically overrated sluggers. It was also the best performance from Froch since he won the WBC title against Jean Pascal. Well it seems there is a rematch next, most probably on neutral ground again, this is official Froch Vs Abraham is the next round, the semi final with Johnson and Ward making up the all American semi final. Must say Ward has been a lucky boy getting a fare few easy fights as of late including the gift points he got before his fight with Bika.