By Terence Dooley

Carl Froch defends his WBC 168lb title against Mikkel Kessler in Herning, Denmark on the 24th of April and ‘The Cobra’ has told thisisnottingham.co.uk that his fitness could be the deciding factor come fight night.  Froch, 32, meets Mikkel in the second stage of the Super Six tournament and could not be facing Kessler at a better time after the Dane’s torrid, blood soaked eleventh round technical decision loss to Andre Ward in November.

“It is all about getting myself into super fit shape, from my long-distance runs, my short runs and my sparring.  There is a fine line because if you spar too heavy and too much, you end up with injuries.  I banged my elbow and there is swelling and quite a bad bruise.  I couldn't straighten my arm but this week I can get back on it.  You have to be careful,” declared the 26–0 (20) fighter.

Froch has been in fine verbal form of late, comparing archrival Joe Calzaghe to a yapping Jack Russell dog, and casting bards in the direction of Kessler.  Indeed, Carl will find Kessler a much more straight-forward, and hittable, prospect than Andre Dirrell, who gave Froch the runaround before losing via a split-decision back in October.  Kessler, though, came into this tournament as the favourite to grab the overall win and he will be confident of finding the target against Froch, something he could not do in the Ward showdown.

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