Will Froch Lead with his Chin Against Dirrell?

Boxingnews24.com Scott Gilfoid17th September, 2009

On October 17th, two contrasting styles will be apposing one another in the Super Six tournament fight between World Boxing Council super middleweight champion Carl Froch (25-0, 20 KO's) and top contender unbeaten Andre Dirrell (18-0, 13 KO's), in a fight that will be taking place in Froch's home town of Nottingham, England. In one corner you have the technically oriented 26-year-old Dirrell, who with his lightning fast hand speed, impenetrable defense and quick foot movement, is probably the most talented of the Super Six fighters.

And then on the opposite side of the spectrum you have the slow of hand and slow of foot Froch, a fighter who likes to keep his hands low by his sides and lead with his chin as he comes forward looking to engage with his opponents. They say that Froch likes to keep his hands down by his sides so that he can catch his opponents with punches that they don't expect or see coming. That may well be.

Froch does seem to be good at landing hooks and uppercuts despite keeping his hands low. He kind of reminds me of a gun fighter that shoots from the hip rather than coming over the top like a conventional fighter. If it works for Froch, more power to him. The problem with Froch is that his chin often is his main line of defense, because he's unable to get his hands up quick enough from his waist to block incoming fire.

As such, Froch plods forward, his chin thrust out in front of him like the bow of a ship, expecting to block incoming ice flows. It's worked for Froch up until his fight with Jermain Taylor last April. However, Taylor seemed like a little kid in a candy store when he saw Froch slowly shuffling towards him with his chin nakedly exposed. Taylor then proceeded to have a field day bombarding Froch with left hooks and big right hands that found Froch's exposed chin again, again and again.

By the midpoint of the fight, the red-faced Froch had been knocked down already and was well behind in the fight. It looked like a cakewalk for Taylor, who couldn't miss with any of his punches. None of them were being blocked and it seemed like only a matter of time before Taylor finished Froch off for good. But a funny thing happened. Taylor actually wore himself out pounding Froch's face and chin, if that's possible. After six rounds of beating the heavy bag of Froch's head, Taylor was a spent fighter, no longer able to muster up more than a handful of punches per round.

It was then that Froch came to life and began to have his way with the exhausted Taylor. The rest is history. Taylor survived until the 12th, when he made the fatal mistake of trying to come out slugging for the final round. Taylor didn't need to do this because he still had a commanding lead at this point in the fight and only had to stay away from Froch to get the win. Taylor didn't, though, and went out blasting away at Froch and ran into a desperate home run right hand from Froch that hurt Taylor.

So will Froch have checked video of his fight with Taylor and corrected his mistakes by the time he fights Dirrell next month at the Super Six tournament on October 17th? I'd like to think so, because if I was Froch, I would have been working immediately on learning how to protect my chin to prevent getting dropped like Froch was against Taylor. However, sadly, I think Froch will continue to fight the same way that he's fought in the past and will come forward with his chin thrust out in front of him like a giant ice cutter ship and will be a magnet for every punch that Dirrell throws at him.

In this case, Dirrell won't get tired like Taylor did and will continue to batter away at Froch beyond the 6th round until the referee has to step in at some point and halt the one-sided massacre. This will be a bad start from Froch in the Super Six tournament, but it will be a good lesson for him to teach him to put up his hands and protect his chin.

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