Froch, Dirrell and Taylor...0-7 through the rest of the tournament?

You watched a different fight to me. Froch barely broke a sweat in the Dirrell fight!

 

I was not aware of that, but it wouldn't surprise me if it turns out to be true. He's a great athlete, but I've only seen him go into deep water against Miranda and Kessler so far. I do, however, think that Froch has the best conditioning of all of them (or he just fights so lazy that he doesn't tire). Dirrell managed to have a great last 3 rounds against Froch after running the Nottingham Marathon all night, so he's definitely got some stamina. (Though if he were to throw some punches it might cause him to tire. We may never know about that though.) Kessler's shown good stamina in the past, and he wasn't looking gassed in the Ward fight, just totally clueless. Taylor we all know about. Abraham doesn't need stamina because he absolutely refuses to fight outside of the last 30 seconds of each round, which imo is a good strategy for his style. So Ward might have very good stamina, but the only one I'd put him above for sure is Taylor. The others are all very close to each other, and Froch is at the top imo. And good for Froch, I mean he's got to be good at something, right?

The reason I predict Dirrell to win late while behind is that Ward will almost certainly fight with a better plan and take rounds for most of the fight. Dirrell will probably wake up toward the end like he did against Froch and realize that he actually has to hit the other guy a bit to win. He won't hit Ward nearly as easily as he hit Froch, but if he cracks Ward like that, Ward might just go down...

I picked Taylor to win late because I think his power will gradually wear down Ward, and Taylor will at least rough him up inside and make him fight a bit harder than Kessler did. Taylor might be smart enough to steal rounds and make it a close fight, which would probably cause Ward to take chances toward the end. Taylor can counterpunch, so if Ward takes too many risks, he might find himself getting dropped.

I don't have anything against Ward, I just think he's very beatable at this point in his career. You probably know a whole lot more about him than I do, so you're more than welcome to have opinions that differ from mine ;-)

But if you were thinking that I was inferring that Ward would tire late in the fight, then no, that wasn't my point. I just think the fights will play out in a way that favors the other guys later on in the fight. And I wouldn't be the least bit surprised to see him be completely dominant in his next two fights either. Knockout or stoppage wins by Ward would definitely surprise me, but other than that I give Ward every chance to pull it off.

 

Froch remains undefeated and wins the whole thing.

 

I find it highly unlikely.....but the guy does seem to find a way to win. Kessler/ Froch is a toss up to me. But i think Abraham KO's Froch in brutal fashion.