By Scott Gilfoid: WBA heavyweight champion David Haye was very impressed with newly crowned WBC super middleweight champion Carl Froch’s 12 round decision win over Arthur Abraham (31-2, 25 KO’s) on Saturday night in their Super Six tournament fight at the Hartwall Arena, in Helsinki, Finland. Haye, who comes from the same country as Froch and is a good friend of his, had this to say in an article at thesun.co.uk: “Carl fought the perfect fight, a masterclass against a world-class fighter. He let the world know Britain is running the show. Carl didn’t put a foot wrong, it was so beautiful to watch. He made Abraham look almost amateurish at times and it was one of the most dominant displays I have ever seen.”

Haye appears to be getting a little carried away with himself. Froch beat a fighter that was recently beaten and dominated by Andre Dirrell in his last fight. Abraham looked just as bad in the Dirrell fight as he did in the Froch fight. The difference is that Abraham fouled Dirrell in the 11th round that caused Abraham to get disqualified. Abraham was beaten just as bad in that fight. He also looked bad in his fight against Jermain Taylor last year in his first fight in the Super Six tournament. Abraham was failing to let his hands go in that fight until hurting Taylor with what appeared to be a right hand followed by an elbow in the 9th round. That kind of changed the fight. Taylor wasn’t the same in the 10th, and was taken out in the 12th with a right hand from Abraham.

Haye “It was as dominant as [Lennox] Lewis against [David] Tua and [Joe] Calzaghe against [Jeff] Lacy. It was that good. He was in control of the fight from start to finish. Carl is right up there with the boxers who trhill crowds, like Manny Pacquiao.”

I think Haye needs to get a hold of himself here. This is, after all, Abraham we’re talking about here, not Andre Ward , Dirrell or Lucian Bute. Haye seems to have skipped past those fighters in the process of crowning Froch the greatest fighter that ever breathed. Froch did get schooled by Dirrell last year and won by a 12 round split decision in what many people, this writer included, saw as a home town decision. This after Froch turned the fignt into a MMA-type foul-fest after spending the first four rounds whiffing with one big punch after another and hitting only air. In the 5th, Froch lost his cool and began to foul for all he’s worth, while the referee just stood and watched.

I hate to break this to Haye, but I see Froch getting beaten in his next fight by 41-year-old Glen Johnson next year in the United States. It won’t take Ward to give him the beating to send him out of the tournament. Johnson has more than enough hand Froch a defeat and drum out of the tournament.

As for Abraham, I think he needs to move back down to middleweight. The domination by Dirrell pretty much showed that Abraham doesn’t have the size to compete at the bigger 168 pound weight class. But what’s worrisome, however, is Abraham’s diminishing work rate. This is something he’s been experiencing for the past two years even while fighting in the middleweight division. He can no longer fight hard for more than 30 seconds of every round without gassing out. He was able to get away with this against the smaller, mostly inept middleweight fighters, but at super middleweight, he’s simply giving away too much size for him to jump on someone and obliterate them like he did at middleweight. Abraham may not want to move back down in weight, but unless he wants to take more losses and end up as fodder for the younger fighters, he’d be better off moving back down in weight.