By Alex Prescott: (Photo Tom Casino / Showtime:) Who says people can’t change? because tonight Carl Froch did just that. In a fight almost everybody had pegged as a toe to toe war, he danced around the Armenian Arthur Abraham in a style that was more Joe Calzaghe than Joe Frazier.

It took me a couple of seconds in the first round to realise what was happening, as Froch used movement to create angles and punched through Abraham’s famed defence seemingly with ease. It took me a couple more rounds to realize that this was not just Froch testing the water, but it was how he intended to fight this fight in its entirety, especially given the success he was having.

Every jab seemed to connect, even those that landed on Abraham’s forearms sounded heavy and painful and they came from all over. Froch would move inside with hooks swung in to the body followed by straight rights to the head before ducking back out and starting again. Abraham looked clueless going into the second half of the fight, completely out of idea’s and swinging in wildly hoping for something to land, but this wasn’t his night.

In round 7 Froch forced Abraham into the ropes with quick, powerful combinations and great footwork that kept him just out of range from any counters.

Round 8 was much of the same, Abraham was visibly frustrated by this boxer that had turned up disguised as a brawler and was warned by the referee for following through with an elbow. As the fight progressed Froch seemed to start hurting Abraham, who’s knee’s visibly dipped a couple of times during round 9 and was ignored in subsequent rounds complaining about low blows that never were and shots to the back of the head.

After a shaky start to the twelfth Froch closed the show much in the same way he had begun. The scores came in 119-109, 120-108 and 120-108.

The fight Froch most wanted (and probably still wants) was Joe Calzaghe, the retired undefeated world champion, and if Calzaghe was still around its the fight the British press and fans alike would now be demanding, but would we just see tonight’s fight again only this time with Calzaghe dealing the punishment?

We all know Calzaghe didn’t hit as hard as Froch does, but then, Froch doesn’t move and punch half as quick as the Welsh Dragon did, and Froch could not come into that fight with the game plan he had against Abraham. Froch has always maintained that he would walk Calzaghe down, catch him on the ropes and knock him out, but I think that tonight Froch has proved himself wrong.

Calzaghe would be the one dancing around, creating the angles and landing the shots, only he would be landing a lot more of them, a lot quicker. Froch could always stay on his toe’s like he proved he could do tonight but Calzaghe’s style would bring out the brawler in him, lets face it, Froch wouldn’t out box a boxer.

At the end of the day though, Carl Froch and his team came up with a plan to dismantle “King” Arthur Abraham, and it was a plan that worked flawlessly. Everyone expected the same one dimensional slugger to come out, and I think we were all pleasantly surprised to see that you can teach an old dog new tricks. Maybe the next time we see him he will have changed his moniker to Carl “The Chameleon” Froch, seems fitting. For now.