By Joe Met: There is a lot of debate surrounding the fighters who have been involved in the Super Six Tournament this last year or so, and non more so than Carl Froch, and Andre Dirrell. If the tournament were scored on column inches alone , one of these two fighters would have won it already.

If you are a fan of Froch then you are most likely also a fan of such fighters as Manny Paquiao, Ricky Hatton, Mike Tyson, Arturo Gatti, Erik Morales and Roberto Duran to name just a few. Fearless blood and guts, toe-to-toe fighters who weren’t worried about taking a few punches during the course of the fight and who were willing to put it all on the line against the very best opposition out there to prove that they were the best. These types of fighters are the ones who give us the most entertaining fights, the real edge of the seat battles that could often go either way. These are the kind of men who ALWAYS aim to get their opponent out of there before the end of the fight.

Froch comes in for a lot of criticism for his hands-down slugger style, he often abandons his defence during fights in favour of the more primitive approach of “lets exchange bombs and see who goes down first”, it’s a very brave tactic, offering up your chin to your opponent like that for him to test his best shots out on. But its clever too if you know you can take a bit of punishment. If you give your chin up to your opponent like that and hes banging away at you, but can’t make a dent, then psychologically he’s beat. He knows he cant knock you down, and he’s exhausted himself trying, and if you have huge power in both hands like Froch does then it’s all over when you connect with one of your own. It’s primitive I’ll admit. But it’s effective, and VERY entertaining to watch.

Dirrell has a lot of fans too, and I can understand why. He is clearly a talented fighter having won the Bronze medal at the 2004 summer Olympics, Fast and with slick skills, not a particularly powerful puncher, but had a solid 18-0 record before entering the super six.

But then he ran into Froch in the first round of the tournament and this spelled bad news for Andre, because for all his speed and technical ability, he was lacking in the one thing that it is ESSENTIAL to have in your armory if you are to even survive in a ring with someone like Froch, never mind beat him. And that thing is courage. It was clear from the start of the fight that Dirrell really didn’t want anything to do with Froch once they had got into the ring and did everything he could to avoid actually having a fight that night. The WBC super middleweight title was on the line for that fight but Dirrell didn’t seem to consider it worth getting hurt for, his heart just wasn’t in it. Froch was so embarrassed to have been involved that he even apologized to his own fans afterwards for the lack of entertainment, saying: “I can only fight whats put in front of me!”.

Next up for Dirrell was the undefeated, power punching Armenian, Arthur Abraham. Another night that Andre would rather forget I imagine. The fight started off with Arthur coming forward and Andre going backwards, and pretty much continued that way until Abraham was rightly disqualified in the 11th for hitting Dirrell while he was down on one knee having slipped. Dirrell came in for some serious criticism from fans and pundits alike for the delayed reaction from the punch that was all to clear in the action replays, and for pretending that he was knocked out when he wasn’t so that there was no way that the fight could have continued. Things weren’t going to get much better anytime soon for Andre though, because he was then due to face the competition favourite, and fellow American, Andre Ward. Now this is a fight that no-one would have fancied Dirrell to win, to predict a one-sided beat down being dished out to Dirrell by Ward would be a serious understatement, but alas, it was never to happen. So frightened was Dirrell that he released a statement declaring that under doctors orders he was unable to continue in the tournament. It was a Dr Shaw-hi, if I remember correctly, has anyone ever heard of him? I’m not sure when we will see Dirrell in action again, but when we do, I’m pretty sure it won’t be against world class opposition, because he clearly doesn’t fancy himself against them.

Meanwhile fearless Froch is up against tough , former IBF light-heavyweight champion Glen Johnson of Jamaica next. At 42 years old and with 14 losses on his resume, I can’t see anything but a loss for Johnson here. Froch has the height, reach, power, and conditioning advantages over Johnson as well as being 10 years younger. And with his lion heart and granite chin, and the prospect of meeting Ward in the final, Froch will be relishing the challenge. You could bet your last penny he will not take a single step backwards in this fight or his next, I won’t be taking my eyes off the action for a second, because when Froch fights, you are always guaranteed entertainment, drama, and a real show of heart, courage and guts. It would be a very tough fight against Ward in the final (assuming that he gets past Abraham), and Ward will surely be the favourite, but not by much I don’t think. I for one will certainly not be surprised if Froch wins it.