By Scott Gilfoid: 41-year-old Glen Johnson (51-14-2, 35 KO’s) is going to find it relatively easy to locate WBC super middleweight champion Carl Froch (27-1, 20 KO’s) in the ring when they fight next in their Super Six tournament fight in April or May. Froch, 33, won’t be astute enough to realize that you can’t beat a guy like Johnson on the inside because Johnson is a much stronger fighter in close compared to Froch. If you look Froch’s fights, he really has no inside game.

The closest thing that I can see for an inside game from Froch is in his bout against Andre Dirrell in October 2009, when Froch was nailing Dirrell with rabbit punches and holding and hitting him. There wasn’t much skill there and zero power. For Froch to throw with power, he needs to be fighting at mid to long range for him to get full extension on his punches. The problem is Johnson is going to take the fight to the inside against Froch, and make him fight his fight.

Johnson is a lot better puncher when he’s throwing short hooks and uppercuts at close range. He’s just got better ability in close compared to the long-armed Froch. For Froch to succeed in this fight, he’s going to have to be humble enough to realize that Johnson is the better fighter at close range and that he needs to do a little bit of movement to try and keep the fight on the outside. That’s really hard to do against a fighter like Johnson because he’s good at walking his opponents down behind a jab. He’s going to back Froch up against the ropes over and over again, and once he has Froch against the ropes, Johnson is going to rake Froch with big head shots and body shots.

Another problem Froch has is that he doesn’t move well on his feet, so it’s going to be that much easier for Johnson to walk him down compared to Johnson’s last fight against the much better mover Allan Green. Froch is going to be like a sitting duck without movement. This fight may come down to whether Froch can beat Johnson on the inside. I say he can’t do it. I see Johnson wearing Froch down and beating him up badly.