By Scott Gilfoid: Light heavyweight Yusaf Mack (31-4-2, 17 KO’s) sees a lot of weaknesses in IBF super middleweight champion Carl Froch’s game as they move towards their showdown next month on November 17th at the Capital FM Arena, Nottingham, Nottinghamshire, United Kingdom. Mack, 32, spotted some serious flaws in Froch’s game in his fights against American talents Andre Dirrell, Andre Ward and Jermain Taylor, all of which were able to out-box Froch for long stretches of those fights.

Mack said on Sky Sports Ringside “I believe I’m one of the top fighters. I feel that a guy that can box, Froch has trouble with. Dirrell, he [Froch] lost. Ward, he lost. Jermain Taylor, he was losing but he caught Jermain.”

I totally agree with Mr. Mack. Froch really should have lost the fight to Dirrell, a fight which took place in Nottingham. It’s weird how many Brits see the fight differently from boxing fans from the rest of the world. Fans outside of the UK saw Froch losing by a clear cut decision to Dirrell, whereas the Brits seem to all think that Froch won. So pretty much the entire world sees Froch losing that fight, but only his own country saw him winning. To me, that pretty much tells you that Dirrell won that fight. He did a beautiful job of out-boxing Froch, making him miss and look bad. Dirrell calmly picked Froch off with jabs and rarely hit except for when Froch was holding and hitting, which he was allowed to get away with by the referee working the fight.

Mack had this to say about Froch’s recent win over Lucian Bute: “No, [I wasn’t impressed with his win over but] I thought there was something wrong with Bute. Bute looked like he had a lot on his mind. He was worried. He was backing up the whole fight. I never seen him back up. He was backing up to the ropes like he was scared or something. I’m not going to let him [back me up to the ropes]. I’m going to stay in the middle of the ring and not let him back me up. It’s going to feed my fire.”

Mack is a smart fighter from Philadelphia, and he won’t make the same rookie mistake that Bute did by retreating to the ropes hoping things will get better there. In fairness to Bute, he retreated to the ropes because he had found success fighting off the ropes in some of his recent fights. He was able to land big body shots while backed against the ropes against weaker opposition, and it looked like he was planning on doing just that against Froch. The problem is Froch never stopped throwing shots once he had Bute on the ropes, and this prevented Bute from getting a shot in to Froch’s midsection to take him out. Bute kept waiting for Froch to stop punching so that he could land his own shots, and he ended up getting hurt while waiting.

Mack can definitely win this fight if he boxes Froch the way that Dirrell, Ward and Taylor were doing. Mack has the better power than Froch, and is clearly the better boxer. However, Mack has to make sure he can slug and box, and he’s got to keep his stamina once the fight goes into the later rounds.