Kessler avoids the Cobra's bite
Carl Froch was at his most frustrating in Denmark tonight when he lost a unanimous points decision and his WBC super-middleweight title to home hero Mikkel Kessler.
We all know he has an iron chin, and no defence to speak of, depending as he does on his heavy hands and lightning reactions. Kessler on the other hand is pretty orthodox in what he does, and he does it well with a deep well of courage to draw from when the going gets tough.
This fight only really sparked into life from the fourth round when Froch blasted the Dane with some unorthodox rights which stiffened the legs of Kessler but didn’t cause the Viking Warrior to wilt. In simple terms, Kessler had out-worked Froch for the earlier rounds, even if it was unspectacular, it was effective.
Kessler had admitted beforehand that this was his last chance in the Super Six contest and this was obvious in his approach to the bout. The Dane worked relentlessly at what he does well and Froch and his team can have no complaints over the result. Froch did see Kessler down on the canvas in round five but it was a slip and judged correctly as such as the replay clearly showed. Still, Froch seemed in this round to have paid attention to Robert McCracken’s words at the end of round four and was much more aggressive. The reaction from the Viking to Froch was predictable and round six was easily his.
The question was, could the Dane maintain this? His overhand rights were featuring in the next three rounds so the question of whether he could maintain it were superfluous, as Froch was far too casual in his work, allowing the ever busy Kessler effectively to take rounds without sparkling. Froch has a cut opened up on Kessler’s left eyebrow in the ninth and targets it relentlessly with his own overhand rights, but also slashing left crosses which if they missed Kessler’s head would guarantee to exacerbate the cut.
Froch convincingly took rounds ten and eleven but Kessler, to his credit never folded under the pressure being piled onto him. Kessler seemed to be desperate with his work as both boxers tired under the pace of the bout and the fact that both are pretty heavy handed. Froch’s granite like chin had been tested yet again in this bout and had not been found wanting, but why did he allow Kessler to test him? He (Froch) does have a streak of arrogance about him which many find antipathy towards, but really good boxers need some of that in their make-up.
The final round was worth the money alone, as both boxers went all out in an explosion of brutality which was straight out of the “Rocky” films. This was a total war of attrition from both boxers, who will ache for weeks after the pain they both inflicted in their endeavours to render the judges score-cards meaningless.
Unfortunately, Froch had lost his “Zero” and rightly Kessler got the unanimous points with scores of 117-111 115-113 and 116-112 from the Italian and two Belgian judges.
Why oh why did the Cobra wait so long to kick-start his fight?
Submitted by Tom Walker on 24 April, 2010 - 22:46
