Photo: Casino/SHOWTIME – By Scott Gilfoid: WBC super middleweight champion Carl Froch fired a shot across the bow when he said he would make the fight into a dirty one if his opponent WBA super middleweight champion Andre Ward fouls him on Saturday night in their Super Six finals bout.

Froch said “He [Ward] is a very dirty fighter, because he doesn’t have the power he tries to use his head and hold. If he decides to make it dirty, I am happy to oblige and mix it with him.”

What Froch says isn’t an empty threat. In his fight against Andre Dirrell two years ago, Froch fouled Dirrell continuously from the 5th round until the 10th in reaction to Dirrell’s clinching. Froch body slammed Dirrell in the 5th, and used a lot of holding and hitting, as well as throwing elbows to gain an advantage. The referee, oddly enough, eventually took a point away from Dirrell for holding and ignored Froch’s rabbit punching, holding and hitting.

Despite what Froch says about Ward being a dirty fighter, he’s really not. Ward gets a bad rep for his fight against Mikkel Kessler in 2009, a fight where Kessler and Ward had problems due their clashing styles. Both fighters often came in at the same time to try and throw and the result was frequently a clash of heads. Since Ward was coming forward with his head lowered, he suffered less than Kessler, who often had his head positioned upwards. But other than that fight, Ward has never been one to get involved with head butts and certainly never intentionally.

If Froch does turn the fight into a physical one, it won’t be a benefit to him. Froch isn’t a good inside fighter and for him to get involved with a roughhouse fight, it will require him to get in close for him to have success. Ward is the much superior inside fighter, and would do a number on Froch is the fight turns physical.