By Cliff Rold

Sometimes it’s fun to be wrong.

In prognosticating the two big fights prior to last weekend, the expected name in the winner’s column didn’t end up there.  Instead, through two exciting, rugged encounters, boxing enthusiasts of all stripes were taken through twenty four rounds where the outcomes were always in doubt, where single punches could make the tide seem turned only to shift again.

The lure of boxing is simple, elemental really.  For all the appreciation of skill and athleticism, it is in the moments of high drama that the crowd raises in a roar.  It’s that way for a reason.  Saturday night, on two networks and in two nations, one fighter saved his career and another took his to a whole new level.

And they did it with violence.

Mikkel Kessler (43-2, 32 KO) worked his way on to the Super Six scoreboard in a fight which could garner attention at year’s end as one of 2010’s best, besting WBC titlist Carl Froch (26-1, 20 KO) with a nasty gash over his left eye.  Tomasz Adamek (41-1, 27 KO) made his third straight start at Heavyweight and, for the first time, left the ring with the look of a real serious big man.  Working towards his third title in three weight classes, after holding the WBC Light Heavyweight title and earning recognition as the true Cruiserweight champion, Adamek boxed the ears off of former title challenger Chris Arreola (28-2, 25 KO) in Arreola’s L.A. backyard.

Kessler moves on to Allan Green in the next round of the increasingly intense Super Middleweight tournament.  Where Adamek goes is open for debate, but now it’s a debate worth having.

Let’s go the report cards.
 
Grades
Pre-Fight: Speed – Froch B-; Kessler B/Post: B; B
Pre-Fight: Power – Froch B; Kessler B+/Post: B+;B+
Pre-Fight: Defense – Froch C; Kessler B-/Post: B-; B-
Pre-Fight: Intangibles – Froch B; Kessler B/Post: A for Both

Pre-Fight: Speed – Arreola B; Adamek B+/Post: Same
Pre-Fight: Power – Arreola B+; Adamek C+/Post: B+; B-
Pre-Fight: Defense – Arreola C+; Adamek B-/Post: C-; B+
Pre-Fight: Intangibles – Arreola B; Adamek A/Post: B; A

Beginning with the big men, Adamek showed skill trumps size.  He also showed strategy counts.  He had one.  Arreola?  Not as much. 

Early on it looked like Arreola would do what he needed to, clubbing with the overhand right where he could and working the body over when he got close.  However, as the rounds passed, Arreola increasingly went head hunting.  Perhaps buoyed by successes in rounds five and six, Arreola abandoned what was his best chance to win: taking the legs of Adamek down the stretch.  Even with the sole of his show kept on with tape, Adamek’s legs never went and in fact won him the fight.

Boxing and playing the counter puncher, Adamek circled the ring in is his own stiff way and, despite roars from the crowd, made Arreola miss most of his best shots in the second half of the bout.  Adamek also managed to outwork Arreola to the body while never letting up with eye catching rights. 

Arreola got points for some wild attempts to turn the tide late, rushing out from his corner and trying to rush Adamek into a bomb, but it didn’t pay off.  Arreola also gets credit for never quitting, though it remains as ever mitigated by the knowledge that he just doesn’t work hard enough before the fights to maximize his talents. 

When twelve frames were in the books, Adamek had shown that behind the warrior veneer fans had seen in battles with Paul Briggs and Steve Cunningham is a keen boxing mind.

The boxing mind of Kessler was never in doubt but his lack of improvisational adaptation in losses to Joe Calzaghe and Andre Ward, and a marked decrease in offensive volume recently, had him looking vulnerable against Froch.

In many ways he was.  Froch landed some stiff rights and lefts throughout the fight but Kessler found the output he needed and where he struggled to find the head of Froch, he made up for it with a concerted body attack. 

The fight itself was like a great suspense movie, the seeds for the finish planted slowly in the opening acts as everything built to what would be a six minute crescendo of leather in rounds eleven and twelve.  Each man won one of those round, Froch the former and Kessler the latter, and did so leaving everything they had in the ring.

There has been some debate about the scoring but none of the tallies were really wrong.  This corner matched the 117-111 score but it’s not a slight to Froch.  Froch won some outstanding moments all night; Kessler was doing most of the work around them and simply won more rounds.

It was the rare night where numbers on a judging sheet could never describe what happened.  Kessler pulled it out, but Froch pulled it out of him.  The Dane answered critics that wondered if he had the stuff in a dogfight and Froch…well, Froch is all dog fight all the time.

Looking Ahead

After the fight, speaking to thinking he won, Froch said he would have knocked out Kessler if…and then retracted just as quick.  It was the sort of honesty in rhetoric which is well in line with the honesty fans have come to expect from Froch in the ring.  In three of his last four fights, not including his awkward win in the tournaments opening round over former U.S. Olympian Andre Dirrell (19-1, 13 KO), Froch has engaged in the sort of brawls that make must-see fights no matter the result.  He’s got another one with Arthur Abraham and despite haggling about location it’s likely to happen as planned in August.  It could well be the Fight of the Year.

Kessler is back in the game but it doesn’t get any easier from here.  Green will either be hot off winning the WBA title or desperate for a win after years of clamoring for opportunity.  Win or lose, the Dane will always have Saturday’s gut check war to take pride in and a trophy case which now has two WBA, and two WBC, titles won on his career. 

As to the Heavyweights, Adamek is 33 years old and there is no need to waste a moment.  He should chase a title and the title he should chase is the one around the waist of Vitali Klitschko.  Let’s be honest: Adamek is going to be a heavy underdog against either Klitschko.  David Haye hold a belt and is an option, but he’s got bigger money to be made with Wladimir Klitschko. 

Vitali-Adamek is at least interesting as the Polish two-division titlist has the sort of movement, straight, accurate punching and aggression to make Vitali work.  He’d hit Vitali more than anyone has in years.  Imagine the crowd they could pull in Europe or New York City with Adamek’s faithful trekking up from New Jersey?  This fight should happen.  It’s a damn sight better than Willie Standup fighting Vitali in May. 

Heavyweight has some things to look forward to finally…mostly because Adamek and another former Cruiserweight champion in Haye have added something to it which has been lacking.  Haye and Adamek are good fighters who are also fun to watch.

More please.

Report Card Picks 2010: 12-5

Cliff Rold is a member of the Ring Magazine Ratings Advisory Panel and the Boxing Writers Association of America.  He can be reached at roldboxing@hotmail.com