Can Froch Fight While Going Forward?

Boxingnews24.com Scott Gilford22nd August, 2009

I was viewing a couple of World Boxing Council super middleweight champion Carl Froch's recent fights against Jean Pascal and Jermain Taylor, and I couldn't help but notice that Froch, 32, can't seem to fight effectively when he's moving forward. Much of the time when Froch presses the attack moving forward, he looks slow, clumsy and often misses with his punches badly while getting his feet tangled underneath him.

In both of those fights, Taylor and Pascal would nail the slow moving Froch with right hands when he would push forward trying to make contact. In watching both of those bouts in the entirety, I've come to the conclusion that Froch has little ability to fight when moving forward. The only time Froch is effective is when he stands his ground against a fighter that is directly in front of him.

When Pascal and Taylor used movement, Froch, who generally would have his feet set in place, would be slow in moving laterally with them and would get hit. Froch literally would trip over his own feet on a few of the occasions when Taylor and Pascal moved laterally around Froch. It wasn't until late in both of those fights that Froch was able to control the action after Pascal and Taylor stopped moving and stood directly in front of Froch.

In recent interviews, Froch has been saying that he's going to force the action on Andre Dirrell in their fight on October 17th, by coming right after the American fighter. I don't see how Froch will be successful doing this going by what I've see of Froch in his Pascal and Taylor fights. Froch's jab was okay, but he didn't look good going forward at all.

Froch seemed to do well when Taylor and Pascal where near to him so that he could throw medium range uppercuts. Froch was able to get away with telegraphing his uppercuts from a distance at times, but he looked wide open when throwing those punches. He seems to be focused too much on throwing uppercuts, and I see Dirrell taking advantage of Froch when he does this. Froch's big lantern jaw is wide open when he throws these punches and I think Dirrell is going to land a big one right on his chin and take him out if he tries this on October 17th.

Froch has been lucky that his last two opponents have faded badly in the 2nd half of his fights, allowing Froch to take over the fight. Pascal and Taylor are known for tiring in the second half of their fights, so Froch had the perfect opponents to fight in both cases. Dirrell at this point in his career has yet to show signs fading down the stretch. This bad news obviously for Froch.

Some say that's because of Froch's constant pressure he puts on his opponents. However, I disagree. Actually, Froch's work rate is rater anemic and he looks bad when he does move forward because of his slow hand speed and dreadful footwork. He moves like a bad dancer as if he has 100 pounds of lead in his britches slowing him down.

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