By Marcus Richardson: IBF super middleweight champion Carl Froch (29-2, 21 KO’s) is hoping to get Mikkel Kessler (45-2, 34 KO’s) to agree to come to Nottingham to fight him at the City Ground where Froch feels the fight will draw as many as 40,000 fans later on this year.
Froch lost to Kessler in April of 2010 in the Super Six tournament, but Froch thinks he can beat the Danish fighter now.
Froch told Sky Sports News “It would probably be 12 rounds of hell like the first one but if I catch him sweet, he’ll go. With Kessler, it’s going to be a man’s fight, a good old fashioned tear-up…It’s a fight 100 per cent I know I can win.”
Froch seems a little overconfident from his win over Bute. It’s difficult to imagine Kessler getting knocked out by Froch in their proposed rematch because Froch wasn’t able to land shots over and over again like he was in his fight against former IBF super middleweight champion Lucian Bute last Saturday night. In that fight, Bute showed no ability to get out of the way of Froch’s right hands. Bute then made it worse for himself by making an amateurish mistake of trying to fight off the ropes.
The only fighter that got away with that against Froch was Andre Dirrell, and the only reason he was able to do that was because he was moving his torso constantly, ducking and dodging Froch’s shots. Bute didn’t have those kinds of skills and he was battered by Froch when he went to the ropes. Kessler will stay off the ropes and make Froch fight in the center of the ring where Froch is a lot more manageable.
The fight will likely come down to speed and endurance. Kessler will likely have the advantage for the first half of the fight and it’ll be up to Froch to try and take control over the fight in the second half. Froch won’t be able to rush Kessler like he did Bute and just unload on him, because Kessler will pick him off with his left hooks and really nail Froch. He’ll make Froch fight cautiously by catching him early. If Froch attempts to unload on Kessler the same way he did against Bute, I believe Froch will get dropped. Once he gets knocked down once, Froch will make adjustments and look to pot shot instead.