By Scott Gilfoid: IBF super middleweight champion Carl Froch (30-2, 22 KO’s) was pretty well beaten the last time he fought WBA super middleweight champion Mikkel Kessler (46-2, 35 KO’s) three years ago in April 2010 in the Super Six tournament. Froch blames the loss on the combination of the Iceland volcano ash cloud and him fighting Kessler in Denmark.
Froch doesn’t think Kessler will have a chance at beating him in their rematch in the UK seeing that he’s coming off of wins over Lucian Bute and Yusaf Mack and is doing well.
Froch said to Steve Bunce at espn.co.uk “It’s [Kessler fight] is a chance for me to redeem myself and get my legacy intact. The last time I fought him was in Denmark. It was close but he was always going to get the win if it was a close fight. I just think in the UK, me firing on all cylinders, Kessler won’t have a chance. The first fight in Denmark, the first time around, I wasn’t at my best for obvious reasons, one of them being the volcano dust cloud. [I’d like the Kessler rematch to be staged at the] Nottingham Forest grounds is where I’d have it.”
Here’s my take on all of this: I do think it’ll be very, very hard for Kessler to get a decision over Froch simply because the fight will be in the UK, and I just don’t see Kessler being given a decision over Froch unless he really gives him a beat. So I do think in a sense Kessler doesn’t have much of a chance at winning the fight unless he does something extraordinary like knocking Froch down four or five times and/or knocking him out.
I won’t say that Kessler doesn’t have a chance because that’s silly. He has a chance as long as he really puts a beat down on Froch, but I give Kessler only a small chance of winning a decision even if he dominates Froch. The reason I feel this way is I saw the Froch vs. Andre Dirrell fight in 2009 and that fight took place in the UK and Dirrell dominated the action but wasn’t given the decision.
I think even if Kessler performs as well as Dirrell did against Froch, he’ll go home a loser if it goes to decision. Kessler might have to put Froch down a half dozen times to get out of the ring a winner.
Right now there’s still no date or venue for the fight, but it’s likely going to take place in May in London. Froch obviously wants it to take place in his home city of Nottingham, England, but I think Kessler and his promoters at Sauerland Events won’t go for that idea.
Comments are closed.