By Scott Gilfoid: IBF super middleweight champion Carl Froch (30-2, 22 KO’s) and WBA super middleweight champion Mikkel Kessler (46-2, 35 KO’s) weighed in today for their fight on Saturday night at the O2 Arena in London, UK. Froch came in at 167.9 lbs, looking more muscular than usual on his upper body. Kessler weighed in at a pound less at 166.74 lbs.
(Photo Credit: Thomas Sjoerup) By Mateo Miranda: Even though boxing is going through a promotion and TV networking war, we have to give props to Oscar de la Hoya and the whole Golden Boy Promotions team, Mayweather Promotions, Bob Arum, Lou DiBella, K2 Promotions, promoters overseas, and of course HBO and Showtime for these next few months of nonstop boxing entertainment.
Lucas Matthysse vs. Lamont Peterson was the prologue and left our mouths drooling and hungry for more.
Adjust your flat screen TV, ramp up the surround sound, grab your beers (or sodas), and light up that barbecue grill (some are probably still smoking from this past Saturdays annihilation) because we are entering one of the most epic boxing TV lineups in recent memory.
(Photo Credit: Lawrence Lustig) By Scott Gilfoid: The British Boxing Board of Control (BBBof C) is reportedly investigating IBF super middleweight champion Carl Froch after he made comments about potentially killing his opponent WBA super middleweight champion Mikkel Kessler (46-2, 35 KO’s) in their fight on Saturday night in London, UK.
Froch got himself worked up and said this as quoted by the Telegraph.co.uk “If I have to I will kill this f*****. I will kill him. It sounds brutal, it sounds horrible, but that is what it means to me…when I smash his face in, I am going for the kill.”
Robert Smith, the general secretary of the British Boxing Board of Control, said to Sky Sports “We are looking into it and will deal with it accordingly…we are not in a position to do anything about it before the fight.”
By Scott Gilfoid: Both Carl Froch and Mikkel Kessler have talked about wanting to avenge their defeats by WBA super middleweight champion Andre Ward recently and Ward is really hoping that he can get both of them in the ring again so that he can shot that his victories over the two European fighters wasn’t a fluke.
This Saturday Froch and Kessler will be facing each other in a rematch at the O2 Arena in London, UK. The winner of the fight really has no place to go in the division other than to try and redeem themselves by facing Ward again to show that they’re not as bad as Ward made them both look in his dominating performances against them.
By Scott Gilfoid: IBF super middleweight champion Carl Froch (30-2, 22 KO’s) wasn’t pleased at hearing the news that WBO light heavyweight champion Nathan Cleverly and unbeaten British super middleweight contender George Groves both helped out WBA super middleweight champion Mikkel Kessler with sparring to get him ready for his fight with Froch this Saturday night at the O2 Arena in London, UK.
Froch said to the telegraph.co.uk “They’d rather go out there and help a foreign fighter prepare for the biggest fight of my career…the fact that Groves – and I think Nathan Cleverly – has gone out there to help him, sums up what they are: they are quite bitter and jealous and they want to fight with me, but it’s not happening because I’m a league above them.”
By Scott Gilfoid: Brian Magee sees WBA super middleweight champion Mikkel Kessler (46-2, 35 KO’s) as too intelligent, too skilled and much too active for the slower, wide open IBF super middleweight champion Carl Froch (30-2, 22 KO’s) in their fight this Saturday night on May 25th at the O2 Arena in London, UK.
Magee sees Froch as just a wild swinging puncher who doesn’t think like Kessler does when he’s letting his shots go.
Magee said to Sky Sports News about Froch and Kessler’s fight in 2010: “When they were both toe-to-toe, Kessler was cool and smart enough, His boxing brain was still ticking over while Froch was just like a mad dog in a frenzy, throwing wild punches…I do actually think Kessler’s going to do it. I think he’s going to out-box him.”
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.
By Scott Gilfoid: WBA super middleweight champion Mikkel Kessler (46-2, 35 KO’s) thinks IBF super middleweight champion Carl Froch (30-2, 22 KO’s) will be a little a little too hot-headed for their rematch this month on May 25th and will come out on fire looking to pay him back for his previous loss to the Dane three years ago.
Kessler sees Froch’s aggressiveness working against him because he’ll be fighting like he’s completely lost his sense and be fighting like a wild man instead of with intelligence.
By Scott Gilfoid: If there’s one specific area where there is a clear different between IBF super middleweight champion Carl Froch (30-2, 22 KO’s) and WBA super middleweight champion Mikkel Kessler (46-2, 35 KO’s) that separates the two fighters going into their May 25th fight this month it’s the vastly superior jab that the 34-year-old Kessler has going for him.
He not only has a better jab, but he’s a lot faster, throws better combinations, moves better and is the better athlete. But the jab is going to be the key to victory for Kessler because I see Froch backing off almost immediately at the start of the fight and looking to make it a jab war after he tastes some of Kessler’s power shots and realizes the hopeless of the situation.
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.