By William Mackay: Former World Boxing Council super middleweight champion Carl Froch (26-1, 20 KO’s) has finally tasted defeat in losing to Mikkel Kessler in his last fight in the Super Six tournament on April 24th, in Herning, Denmark. With one win and one loss on his record in the Super Six tournament, Froch must win his next fight against the huge puncher Arthur Abraham (31-1, 25 KO’s) on October 2nd if he wants to make it into the semi finals of the Super Six tourney. Froch and Abraham will be fighting at the Chapiteau de Fontvieille, Principauté de Monaco, in Monaco.

This is the neutral venue that Froch has been craving for, as he feels that he should have won his last fight against Kessler. In an article by Steve Bunch at the Mirror.co.uk, Froch has this to say about his loss to Kessler: “I feel I was the victim of a home-town decision when I lost my WBC title and my unbeaten record to Mikkel Kessler in Denmark.” You got to feel for Froch. He really does seem to believe that he should have won the fight against Kessler, even though few boxing fans agree with him. This was Froch’s first defeat and it looks as if he’s taken it quite hard. Instead of thinking too much about how he should have won the fight, Froch needs to figure out why he lost it.

Whether the decision was right or wrong, the fact remains that Froch wasn’t busy enough during the middle rounds and hung back too long in many of the rounds, letting Kessler come to him instead of the opposite way around. Had Froch been just a little bit busier in the middle part of the fight, he probably would have won the bout. However, to really ensure that he got the win, Froch would have needed to have gone after Kessler for 12 rounds the same way he attacked Jean Pascal, Jermain Taylor and Dirrell. Froch’s aggression and pressure was missing in the Kessler fight. Froch could have made things much easier for the judges had he taken the fight to Kessler. That was no home town decision, as far as I could tell. Froch just looked tired and passive through much of the fight.

Abraham has crushing power, the kind that can change a fight in an instant. Froch is still going to have to go after Abraham and throw enough punches to win the fight. Abraham will be landing the harder shots, and unless Froch is able to throw and land a lot more punches than him, Abraham may be able to steal a lot of rounds with his late flurries and bone jarring punches. Judges react positively when they see a fighter getting his head spun around from big punches. Froch will have to try and be busy in the same way that Dirrell was against Abraham. However, Froch may find it hard getting out of the way of Abraham’s big shots the way that Dirrell did, mainly because of Froch’s poor defensive skills. He fights too much with his hands down by his waist and this enables his opponents to land easily. If Abraham lands his punches with any regularity, Froch will have big problems.

Froch had this to say about Abraham: “Abraham was coming back into his fight with Andre Dirrell before getting disqualified. I’ve looked Abraham in the eye and I can tell that he is ready for our fight, and fearless – that suites me.”