By Scott Gilfoid: We saw how Carl Froch (30-2, 22 KO’s) was thoroughly out-boxed by Mikkel Kessler (46-2, 35 KO’s) the last time the two fought each other in 2010. Froch couldn’t do anything right. When he tried to box, Kessler took the fight to him and forced him to eat jabs, left hooks and right hands for a main course.
When Froch tried to get back in the fight in the last four rounds, Kessler got the better of him in their exchanges. Froch was like a kid who had procrastinated until the last minute with his homework assignment in the way he tried to get back in the fight.
The problem was Kessler had too much of a lead by then, too much talent and too much power for Froch to mount a serious type of comeback. Froch figures that he won’t let that happen again, so this time he wants to bum rush Kessler from the opening bell to try and repeat his performance in his wins over Lucian Bute and Yusaf Mack.
The problem is Kessler isn’t like those guys at all and he’s not someone that can be beaten with such a simplistic, primitive caveman style. The way to beat Kessler is the way that Andre Ward did by coming in with a lightning fast jab and then collapsing forward to take it to the inside for a nice roughhouse session.
That would work for Froch except that he doesn’t have an inside game, and never will. It’s too late in the game for the 35-year-old Froch to develop inside fighting skills. It’s like asking Wladmir Klitschko to learn how to throw a big uppercut like Lennox Lewis. It’s not possible.
Froch is kind of in a bind here. He can’t fight Kessler on the inside because he’s under-equipped for the task, and he can’t stay on the outside. That would be suicide for Froch due to Kessler’s superior jab. If Froch stays in range of Kessler, he’ll get taken apart by his better combinations, faster hands and superior power.
There’s really not much Froch do in this fight but run and hope that he can maybe catch Kessler with a big shot that’ll stun him. If Froch can hurt Kessler, then he can bum rush him like he did with Lucian Bute and look to take him out with a flurry of shots. But if Froch attempts to go straight at Kessler right away, then he’s going to get beaten down by the Dane and embarrassed in front of all the Brits attending the fight and watching it on television.
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