The fact is that he's still the King Cobra...

Firstly, let's look on the positive side: Froch vs Kessler for the unified WBA/WBC Super Middleweight championship of the world next up! :happy Pretty amazing event to look forward to.

So I have mixed thoughts on everything that's happened since Saturday. As a Calzaghe fan, it would be easy to sit here and bash.... it's tempting. I thought that Dirrell won the fight fairly comfortably and there's no way Froch was the better boxer of the two over those 12 rounds. But what's done is done and there are redeeming features to come out of it. Froch won't have to go looking for his next opponent Kessler, he'll be right there trying to get on the front foot just like Froch. It will be a completely different fight. We all know Froch can be outboxed at this level by the Jermain Taylors and Andre Dirrells of this world but to outman Froch is a different thing altogether. Kessler has seemed to be easier to hit of late and this will help Froch. Kessler also showed he can be hurt by Calzaghe to the body which makes me think that Froch-Kessler could be a lot more competitive than initial thoughts post weekend might suggest.

Sure, Froch struggled against Dirrell's style. But I seriously doubt many people would have looked against that Dirrell performance on Saturday night. Froch talked a lot of sense after the fight by saying that the Calzaghes and Kesslers of this world would have looked bad against Dirrell and I agree with him. Dirrell is a superb natural athlete with excellent evasive skills. Fantastic to watch him do that and makes the opponent look bad. A little bit of Hopkins, a little bit of Jones. Calzaghe always looked poor against less steller defensive minded boxers than Dirrell: Starie, Thornberry, Jimenez for example. Those guys couldn't lace up Dirrell's boots but managed to make Calzaghe look fairly ordinary for long stretches of their fight.

However, I do think that Dirrell's gameplan was incredibly effective and some of his counterpunching was superb in the early and latter rounds. After a great opening few rounds he lost his way a bit by being more concerned by holding and bitching. Hopefully, he'll look back at those middle rounds and regret them. But the kid has only been in 18 fights and this was his first 12 rounder. If he can somehow take the first few rounds and put them together with the confidence he showed in the last few rounds, he can be very good at this level. He has a bright future if his head is screwed on right.

All the crap that's going around here on the Brit forum is mostly down to the fact that nobody really assumed Dirrell could perform so well defensively I'm sure of it. Not all of that fight was purely down to Froch's lack of athletic skills in attack, Dirrell was very good at what he did.

In a few weeks or so, all of this **** will blow over and we can start looking forward to a massive showdown between two gutsy warriors! (Assuming Ward doesn't put a spanner in the works!)

 

The argument is that Kessler seems to be easier to hit than he was when he fought Calzaghe. He took a lot of jabs from Sartisan and looked a step slower than pre-Calzaghe outings. Kessler needs to fight on the front foot to look good, he's not great when you push him and put pressure on. Which is exactly where Froch's strengths lie. Froch, whether it's effective or not, comes forward for every second of every fight. Kessler is a brave fighter who will engage with Froch. Froch hits hard. This may not be as straightforward as you think.

I'd back Kessler now, but I reckon after the Ward fight, people will start to believe that the King Cobra has got a chance!

 

A think a better comparison is a slow worm