WBA super middleweight champion Mikkel Kessler (46-2, 35 KO’s) beat IBF super middleweight champion Carl Froch (30-2, 22 KO’s) soundly three years ago in Herning, Denmark in front of Kessler’s Danish fans and a small spatter of Froch’s British fans. This time when Kessler faces Froch on Saturday night at the O2 Arena in London, England, Kessler will be looking to whip Froch in front of a huge crowd of Froch’s British fans.
Kessler wants to show that his win last time wasn’t because he was fighting at home in Denmark. It was because he was the more talented fighter than the upright, easy to hit Froch.
Kessler said “I want to show Carl and all of his boxing fans that I’m better than him.”
Well, if the fight follows the pattern of their last fight, Froch will come out aggressive; taste some of Kessler’s power and back off immediately. Last time, Froch fought in spurts where he would come at Kessler for some exchanges and then back away after Kessler got the better of him. The fight followed this pattern until late in the fight when it clear that Froch was well behind in the fight and needed to sweep the championship rounds in order to have a chance to win.
Froch did come on strong, but Kessler beat him back each time and the two fought to a standstill in the 10th, 11th and 12th rounds. Froch definitely didn’t do enough to get the win, and the scores handed out were arguably too close with Kessler winning the fight by the scores of 115-113, 116-112 and 117-111. I agreed with the 117-111 scores, but the other two were too close and didn’t match the actual fight. Froch didn’t do that well for the scores to be almost even.
For Froch to win this time he’s going to have to fight a lot better than he did in 2010. Froch can’t back away each time Kessler gets the better of him during their exchanges. Froch has to stay in there and look to take Kessler out with one long exchange because if he backs away after throwing one or two punches, Kessler will box his ears off because he’s faster, smoother and he throws the better combinations. Froch has to turn the fight into a bar room brawl and hope that Kessler can’t handle it.
