Carl Froch has a great chance of beating Andre Ward tonight, with Froch needing to get Ward on the back foot straight away
In the past 3 years Carl Froch has gone out and written himself one of the most impressive resumés in the world of boxing, by simply fighting the best fighters in his weight division and not being scared to fight the particular person in his home town, in the past 3 years he has fought : Jean Pascal, Jermain Taylor, Andre Dirrell, Mikkel Kessler, Arthur Abraham, Glen Johnson and will be adding Andre Ward to this extremely impressive list.
Now on Saturday night it wont just be the WBC, WBA and Super Six trophy that Carl will be fighting for, he will also be fighting his way into the argument of being one of the best British fighters of all time! If (hypothetically speaking) Carl Froch wins, I cant honestly think of any British fighter that has had such a tough streak of fights and come out at the end with his hand raised.
At 34 years old Carl knows that he doesn’t have too many miles left on the clock and that now is the time to leave it all in the ring.
Across the ring will be Andre Ward, a man who in 2004 won a gold meddle for his country and has since had 24 professional fights and is yet to sample the bitter taste of defeat. Andre Ward went into this tournament with several question marks beside him: could he handle it at this level, can he keep the ‘punchers’ off him, can his chin stand up to scrutiny?
He was drawn against the pre tournament favourite Mikkel Kessler, he went into that fight with several points to prove and in my opinion fought the perfect fight and proved everything that anyone wanted to know in just 31 minutes and 42 seconds.
Andre Ward took control of the fight from the opening bell with a jab that commanded the respect of Kessler and a right cross that buzzed Mikkel on several occasions. Even when Kessler tried to mix it up on the inside Andre proved that his inside game was as good as any by standing and trading with Mikkel and looking very much the boss throughout the fight.
The fight was eventually stopped due to several cuts that had opened up on Kesslers face, most due to head butts. But there was to be no doubt who the superior boxer was on that night.
There have been many claims (including several from Carl Froch) that Andre Ward is a ‘dirty fighter’ based on this fight. In my opinion this is very harsh, after watching the fight several times yes Ward did clash heads several times put did they look 100% intentional? (like Victor Ortiz v Mayweather) im not sure about that. But is Froch saying this just to get into the mind of Andre Ward? who knows.
Andre Ward has proved throughout this tournament that he is by far the slickest boxer in the Super Middleweight division, with his fast hands, accurate and snapping shots and fantastic footwork… Carl Froch has mocked Wards power (his KO% is 54.17) is he doing this because he knows he cant stand at range and box with Andre and is trying to get him to engage where you would assume Froch has the advantage?
This matchup is shaping up to be a great fight, we have a slick elusive bover v a boxer puncher, both have everything to gain and everything to lose.
If Froch wants to win the fight, I believe he has to work Ward every minute of the fight (much like Peterson did to Khan) forcing him onto the back foot, not giving him time to pick his shots and as soon as Wards back touches the ropes Carl has to work his body and throw some real bombs, slowing the WBA champion down and taking away his main assets : speed and accuracy. If Froch can do this I think he has the power and work rate to wear Ward down and eventually fore a stoppage.
On the other side Ward has to hit and move with Froch, the last thing he wants to do is get dragged into a war and start trading with him, Froch has an incredible chin and hits hard (I went to the Trinity gym in New York before the Cotto v Margarito fight and spoke to a trainer that did some pad work with Froch and watched him spar and he said ‘In all my time coming to this place I have never seen anything like it, Carl Froch hits like a fuckin Mule man’).
But if he can sting Froch with that jab and right cross combination he may be able to frustrate him causing him to get sloppy and will become cannon fodder for Ward, if this happens we will be looking at a UD for Ward.
What do I think will happen? Honestly I wouldn’t like to bet on this fight as I really do see it as a 50/50, but if I was betting your money… Froch win TKO 10-11th round, both rounds are 50/1 with
Betfred!
This is a cliche that is used over and over in this sport but on Saturday night there will really not be a loser and instead of going onto boxing forums and slating the man who has his head bowed at the final bell we should be singing the praises of this tournament as a whole and begin putting pressure on other boxing super powers to use this tournament as a template for future tournaments.
