Froch: still delusional about getting his arse spanked by Kessler

Kessler bossed the fight, had Froch on the back foot, was landing jabs and straight rights to the body, was busier, and controlled the majority of most rounds.

I'm pretty sure the punch stats backed that up too, even though I don't hold much truck with them. Fact is:

Kessler UD12 Froch
judge: Guido Cavalleri 115-113 | judge: Daniel Van de Wiele 116-112 | judge: Roger Tilleman 117-111

Tilleman's score is a little unfair to Froch, but he still picked the right guy. Van de Wiele got it spot on.

 

The Dirrell fight was close simply because Forch couldn't and Dirrell wouldn't. If Dirrell had been less negative he'd have won that fight easily. His tactics were abysmal, but he still had a fair case for winning.

 

http://boxrec.com/media/index.php?title=Fight:1476192

Kessler - Total Thrown: 765, Total Connects: 147 (19%)
Froch - Total Thrown: 546, Total Connects: 98 (18%)

49 punch advantage, I'd bet they were mostly bodyshots. People seem to discount bodywork.

 

I'm not discounting that. I take every shot into account. Kessler did the better, more consistent work each round. Froch maybe landed two or three hard shots per round, but Kessler outhustled him in at least seven of twelve rounds.

Dirrell definitely landed the better shots later in his fight with Froch, but made the mistake of not taking charge early on and making it look like he was running away from Carl. And it simply bears out my point - Froch outworked Dirrell early on, which is why he won. Kessler outworked Froch, matching his quality and doing it more often while coming forwards.

It's simple: effective aggression (landing shots, backing Froch up), clean punching (landed more shots), ring generalship (dictated the pace of the fight). Can you really find seven rounds where Froch did those things more consistently than Kessler. You can find three, with two rounds close but where Kessler kept doing the better work.