By Scott Gilfoid: Robin Reid is picking IBF super middleweight champion Carl Froch (30-2, 22 KO’s) to beat WBA champion Mikkel Kessler (46-2, 35 KO’s) on May 25th at the O2 Arena in London, UK.
Like a lot of guys, Reid’s rationale for selecting Froch as the winner is because he feels that Froch is getting better at age 35.
I’m not sure I agree with that, but I do think his opposition has been getting worse since his loss to Andre Ward. It’s easy for Froch to look good when he’s facing guys that weren’t as good as the guys that were beating him.
Reid said to Sky Sports “I think that flair which Froch has got will draw Kessler into more of a fight or he is just going to run away with it. I think Carl Froch [will win], because he’s on a roll, he’s getting better and better…I think Carl Froch on points.”
I think Reid is going to be in for an unpleasant shock on May 25th when he sees Froch looking just like he did in his fights with Andre Dirrell, Andre Ward and Kessler, and swinging wildly without any real thought and beating easily out-boxed in this fight.
Nothing has changed with Froch’s game in terms of him improving. He’s still the same fighter that Dirrell, Ward and Kessler got the better of, only he’s now a little older and slightly slower.
The only thing that’s changed is Froch has faced Lucian Bute and Yusaf Mack in his last two fights and that’s given the perception that he’s gotten better. If you threw those fighters in with Kessler, you’d see them both getting taken apart and I guess Reid would then be all over Kessler, saying how he’s getting better.
Froch is not getting better. The only thing that’s changed since his loss to Ward is that his opposition has got worse.
You see this fight is going to come down to skill. The guy with the more skill wins this fight, and that guy is going to be Kessler. Froch will go out there swinging for the fences on May 25th, and Kessler is going to box his ears off in a much easier fight than three years ago when he beat Froch by a 12 round unanimous decision.
Froch is going to go out there with Kessler and fight with the same primitive style that cost him the fight last time he fought Kessler, but this time it’s going to lead to him getting beaten easier because Froch has got it in his head that he can beat Kessler by throwing six-punch combinations like he used to beat Bute.
Man, if Froch tries that against Kessler, and he probably will, he’ll be picking up his teeth on the canvas. That’s bad thing about taking weak opposition like Froch has. It gives on the impression that they’re better than they are, and then when they face someone with talent like Kessler, they get smacked down to earth.
Reality literally hits them over the head telling them they’re not talented enough. I see it as a good thing for Froch because it’ll give a better estimation of his own talent and he can go back to being cautious when he fights instead of just trying to smash his opposition out in the 1st couple of rounds.
Comments are closed.