When you fight Carl Froch, it always appears that he should be easily defeated. He has an unorthodox style, that will lead to him getting hit, the problem is he is normally hitting you more often.
In their first fight Froch was his normal busy self, but the fact he was in Kessler’s hometown, Kessler was able to bank some early rounds and landing some pretty heavy counters lead to him pulling out a unanimous victory (I thought Froch won and the stats back it up as he landed and threw more punches than Kessler).
You could tell that Froch didn’t want to make the same mistake twice and he set a blistering pace at the beginning of their second fight. He wasn’t very accurate, but he was just swarming Kessler with punches. It allowed Froch to jump out to a big early lead on the scorecards. By the time Kessler warmed up, he needed a knockout for the win and he got close in the 11th round when he rocked Froch and had him a little wobbly.
But, Froch has a chin of steel and came back firing his own. In the 12th round Froch didn’t play it safe and went out throwing bombs to not leave any doubt who should get the victory.
The scores all were for Froch 118-110, 116-112 and 115-113 (the 118-110 was a little wide, I had it 116-112).
If Andre Ward would be smart, he would come over to the UK and get a massive payday, but Ward sounds a bit delusional in thinking that he has a strong fanbase and pleasing fighting style. While he is the consensus 2nd best pound for pound fighter in the world, he simply isn’t an attraction anywhere except Oakland. There is no reason for Froch who lost convincingly to Ward to go to the US and fight him. He can make more money fighting Kessler again or waiting for someone like Bernard Hopkins who has been interested.
Overall a very entertaining fight, from two great champions. If they fought again, I would imagine it would be another 12 action pack rounds and that is all you can ask for if you are a boxing fan.