By Scott Gilfoid: IBF super middleweight Carl Froch gave the straight talk after his 12 round unanimous decision win Mikkel Kessler, saying that he was hurt by the Dane on at least one occasion in their fight at the O2 Arena in London, UK.
It’s nice that Froch admitted it because it would have been disappointing if he tried to claim that he wasn’t hurt because Froch was staggered in the 11th round after Kessler nailed him with some jarring shots.
Froch said after the fight ”He was there to hurt me on a couple of occasions he did hurt me.”
Froch was lucky that Kessler wasn’t giving him the full treatment like he did in their first fight because Kessler’s punches seemed harder this time around and they had more of an effect on Froch when landing. Kessler waited too long before going after Froch the way he needed to in order to get the win. Froch was throwing a jab at Kessler with a lot of snap on it in the first three rounds, and Kessler let that deter him.
When Kessler did hurt Froch in the 11th, Kessler did well when he opened up with a flurry of shots, but then he made a crucial error and surveying the damage. This let Froch start throwing shots back at him and he wasted the moment.
If Kessler had used his brain he would have kept firing punch after punch for the remaining seconds of the round and he might have got Froch out of there because Froch was blocking shots with his head and looking near helpless. You don’t want to stop throwing punches when you’ve got a fighter in that condition, and that’s where Kessler made a mistake.
The weird part about last night’s fight is even though Froch built up a big lead in the first three rounds, he struggled big time in the next 9 rounds and was lucky to get the win. Had Kessler come out fast in the first three rounds instead of fighting like someone who wasn’t mentally ready to commit himself to get past Froch’s jab, he would have won the fight because Kessler had the talent and power to win the first three rounds easy.
Physically, Kessler and technique-wise Kessler was the better fighter last night, but mentally he lost the fight by fighting a stupid fight from start to finish.
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