By Scott Gilfoid: WBC Silver super middleweight champion James DeGale believes IBF super middleweight champion Carl Froch (30-2, 22 KO’s) has what it takes to get past WBA World super middleweight champion Mikkel Kessler (46-2, 35 KO’s) in their rematch on May 25th at the O2 Arena in London, England.
DeGale said “I fancy Froch. He’s going to come through and win.”
I wish I could agree with DeGale, I really so, but I happened to have seen their previous fight and it was pretty clear that Kessler was the more talented fighter. Kessler has the better hand speed, better power, better technique and got the better of Froch in the exchanges.
When you’re slow and not as blessed in the talent department, you’ve got to be willing to stay in there and take some shots in order to land your own. But what we saw from Froch was him landing a couple of shots, and then backing off while Kessler was giving it to him.
It just looked like Froch was passive in the fight, like he didn’t like the feel of Kessler’s power. Froch tried to come on late to steal the victory, but it was far too late in the fight for him to pull out a victory, and Kessler put the finishing touches on the win by getting the better of Froch in the 12th.
What Froch has going against him now is he’s had two easy fights back to back and he’s got in his head and that he’s going to throw six-punch combinations instead of the 2-punch combos he threw in the first fight.
That sounds good except that if Froch tries to throw six punch combos he’s going to get hit an awful lot, and I think he could end up getting knocked out. You don’t fight like a wild man against Kessler.
That kind of thing works against guys like Yusaf Mack, and a badly Lucian Bute, but it won’t work against Kessler. If Froch tries that he’s going to be picking up his teeth on the canvas.
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