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Froch-Dirrell: “I Will be standing in the ring with the belt at the end” – Andre
By Scott Gilfoid: Carl Froch is going to be in for the fight of his life on October 17th, when he meets up with Andre Dirrell, in Froch’s home city of Nottingham. Its really too bad that the fight is taking place in Nottingham, and not in Dirrell’s home city of Flint, Michigan, because it may be difficult for Froch to experience being beaten in front of his home crowd. At least if the fight took place in another city or country, Froch wouldn’t have to suffer the likely embarrassment that this fight will bring for him if Dirrell beats him as bad as I think he will.
Dirrell, 27, an unbeaten Bronze Medalist for the United States in the 2004, is determined to go into Nottingham and ruin Froch’s world. In their conference call on Wednesday, Dirrell said “I will be standing in the ring with the belt at the end.” Dirrell has no qualms about fighting Froch in his home city and is ready to go over and snatch the victory, and with it Froch’s World Boxing Council super middleweight title in the first bout of the Super Six tournament.
Froch sees himself, along with WBA super middleweight champion Mikkel Kessler, as the two fighters that will emerge at the top of the heap in the Super Six tourney. But Dirrell will have something to say about that. Dirrell is faster, stronger and superior to any fighter that Froch has fought in his career, better even than former middleweight champion Jermain Taylor, who Froch went life and death with in his last bout in April 2009.
Froch was losing the fight going into the 12th round and needed a knockout to win, because he had been knocked down and dominated by Taylor in the fight. Froch was able to pull out a victory with a knockout with 14 seconds left in the fight, but he looked very vulnerable throughout.
The fact that Froch struggled with Taylor, a fighter that many boxing fans see as shot, isn’t something that makes Froch look good. Whether Froch want’s to acknowledge it or not, he was getting handled by a fighter that has struggled in the past couple of years, losing two fights against what many people see as a badly flawed middleweight, Kelly Pavlik.
Froch was getting handled by Taylor, and made to look like embarrassingly slow by comparison. Given that it took a knockout in the last fourteen seconds to get the win over Taylor, seems to suggest that Froch isn’t as good as some boxing experts – and bookies – like to think he is. Froch says that bookies have installed him as a favorite to win the tourney.
I find that astonishing, because it tells me that the bookies need to brush up on their boxing knowledge and take a good look at Froch’s fights against Taylor and Jean Pascal, and rethink their choice. Froch looked wide open defensively in both fights and was hit pretty much nonstop by Pascal and Taylor until they both tired out from throwing punches.
Both are good fighters, but limited in terms of stamina. Had Pascal and Taylor’s stamina held out, Froch would be watching the Super Six tourney on television rather than participating in it because he was getting served up royally by both of them.
Froch isn’t going to win the Super Six tourney, believe me. He’s going to get beat first by Dirrell and then by Kessler. At that point, it won’t matter if Froch wins his third bout in the group I competition because he likely won’t have enough points to make it to the next level.
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