By Scott Gilfoid: You have to feel a little sorry for IBF super middleweight champion Carl Froch (29-2, 21 KO’s) because he’s about to fight a soft touch in Yusaf Mack (31-4-2, 17 kO’s) on November 17th in Nottingham, England and Froch probably isn’t going to get any credit if and when he beats the 32-year-old Mack.

Why? Because Mack has already been knocked out recently by 42-year-old Glen Johnson and Tavoris Cloud. All Froch is getting is sloppy thirds by taking on a guy that was already knocked out in recent fights. Boxing fans will be like ‘So what’ after Froch beats this guy because Mack has already been beaten badly against Johnson and Cloud.

Another thing to worry about with this mismatch is that if Mack causes Froch to really struggle badly to win the fight, it’s going to make Froch look bad because Cloud and Johnson both dominated Mack with ease. And if Froch loses to Mack, well then he might as well retire because that loss would ruin his rematches against Lucian Bute and Mikkel Kessler.

I personally think Mack has a puncher’s chance of knocking Froch out if he can land a big right hand on him. Mack won’t have any pressure on him because pretty much everyone expects him to get slaughtered in Nottingham. But even if he loses, if Mack is able to stagger Froch with a right hand or knock him down once or twice, it’ll be just a loss for Froch even if he pulls it out and wins the fight.

It’s a no-win situation for Froch because he took a soft touch. I don’t know who’s idea it was for Froch to fight Mack – his own or his promoter Eddie Hearn – but someone messed up. They needed a second opinion on that before making this fight, because if they had asked me I would have said no. There’s nothing to be gained from this fight and plenty to be lost for Froch.