By Scott Gilfoid: Former WBC super middleweight champion Carl Froch (26-1, 20 KO’s) is about to experience what for him could be agony on October 2nd in his Super Six tourney semifinal bout against Arthur Abraham (31-25 KO’s) at the Chapiteau de Fontvielle, Principaute de Monaco, Monaco. Both Froch and Abraham have suffered losses in their last fights and need a win for them to continue on in the Super Six tournament.

Abraham, 30, was dominated by Andre Dirrell and was disqualified in the 11th when he struck Dirrell in the head after the American had slipped and fell down on the canvas. Abraham isn’t happy with himself and has been vowing to make up for that fight. He’s now working on his foot work to be able to maneuver around the ring faster.

It may be a bit late for that, though, because he already lost the fight to Dirrell, and his next opponent 33-year-old Froch is a traditional straight ahead plodder. In other words, this isn’t going to be a fight where Abraham will have to go out looking for Froch, because he’ll be there right in front of him all night trying to punch with hm.

Froch may work on trying to avoid slugging it out with Abraham, but I’m pretty sure that once the punches start flying in the first couple of rounds, Froch will fall back into his old pattern of trying to slug it out with his opponents. This could end up making it very easy for Abraham to knock Froch out rather quickly.

This is one of those fights where both guys need to make big changes in their game if they want to win it. If Abraham fights the way he’s been fighting in his first two bouts of the Super Six tourney by not throwing enough punches in the first half of the fight, then Froch will build up a commanding lead and likely coast with it in the second half of the bout and avoid getting knocked out with Abraham’s late surge.

Abraham has to start early with his offense if he wants to win this fight. And Froch needs to box more and slug less. He’s got to use his height and reach to win rounds against Abraham the same way that Dirrell was able to capture rounds by using his jab and a little bit of movement. Froch also has to keep his guard up. I know he doesn’t like to do that, but he has to in this case because Abraham is too powerful and he’ll be able to steal rounds by landing the heavier shots in the last 30 seconds of every round.

There’s also the risk that Froch can get knocked out. He’s got a great chin but when you have a fighter that punches as hard as Abraham, it doesn’t matter how great your chin is. If Abraham can land his power shots, Froch is going to be in great danger of being knocked out. Both of these guys have to make changes in their fighting style if they to win. I’d like to think that Froch will be smart enough to focus on boxing Abraham and not slugging it out with him, but I think Froch is going to go right after him and get knock out. This is going to be like George Foreman vs. Joe Frazier with Abraham being Foreman and Froch being Frazier. Froch is going to right after Abraham and get clocked by him. The thing is once Abraham has you down, it’s very hard to survive. Froch can get up, but Abraham is murderous once he has you hurt.