Froch vs. Johnson: A loss for Carl will destroy his big Super Six finals dream

By Boxing News - 05/11/2011 - Comments

Image: Froch vs. Johnson: A loss for Carl will destroy his big Super Six finals dreamBy Scott Gilfoid: My, how things have turned around for Carl Froch (27-1, 20 KO’s). Last time out, Froch was complaining about possibly hanging up the old gloves if he lost his stage 3 Super Six fight to Arthur Abraham in November 2010. Froch won the fight by a landslide 12 round decision, recaptured the World Boxing Council (WBC) super middleweight crown in the process, and got a nice Sky deal for his next fight against 42-year-old Glen Johnson (51-14-2, 35 KO’s) on June 4th at the Boardwalk Hall in Atlantic City, New Jersey.

If Froch wins that fight, he’s in the finals of the Super Six tournament and will likely be facing the tourney’s best fighter WBA super middleweight champion Andre Ward. There’s no shame in Froch getting whipped by Ward. However, there would be a lot of criticism aimed at Froch is he loses to Johnson, because many boxing fans and experts think Froch is going to win that fight with Johnson because of his youth, power and boxing ability. I’m not one of them.

Froch thinks he’s going to beat Johnson and then fight for the Super Six trophy, which he wants to bring back to England and show it off. I just don’t see that happening. If there was ever a fighter that was tailor made for Johnson, it’s Froch. He and his legions of boxing fans from England just don’t see that yet. Froch thinks he’s going to box Johnson and play hit and run with him. That won’t work because Froch isn’t a boxer, he’s a slugger.

Froch is talking about boxing Johnson but that’s all talk and will change as soon as Johnson starts putting hands on Froch. Once Froch is hit hard, his anger and competitive nature and self-pride will surge up and cause him to fight Johnson in a toe-to-toe fashion. That is where Johnson is going to eat Froch for dinner. Froch doesn’t have the game to fight a big slugger a guy with an ability to throw nonstop punches like Johnson.

Froch just doesn’t have the skills for that. He’s one of those guys that does well against fighters with lower work rates in which he can counter them. Froch has problems when you really pressure and unload with an avalanche of punches over a sustained period of time. This is what Mikkel Kessler did in his win over Froch last year, albeit to a much lesser extent than Johnson. Froch will fight competitively with Johnson for four or five rounds but then run out of gas due to the high pace that Johnson sets and then the fight will get out of hand with Johnson running away with it to the cheers of the Boardwalk Hall audience.



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