With the Group Stage of the Super Six Tournament lurching to a halt, a handful of questions have been answered. All doubt about the decline of Jermain Taylor were erased by the fists of Arthur Abraham. Andre Ward shocked the world by dominating Mikkel Kessler, establishing himself as the tournament’s man to beat. Finally, Carl “The Cobra” Froch has revealed himself to be the true ironman of this tournament.
By “ironman” I mean in the endurance event in Hawaii sense, rather than the Tony Stark superhero sense. I am no fan of Froch. Frankly, he talks too much and makes a lot of excuses. While he is undeniably a strong, heavy-handed guy, Froch is also very easy to hit. However, the man from Nottingham has had quite a run lately. In the Group Stage of the Super Six, the Briton has fought Andre Dirrell and Mikkel Kessler, and is scheduled to fight Arthur Abraham. Froch and Abraham are the only fighters in the Super Six to fight all three of their original slate, and Abraham got lucky in meeting a shopworn Taylor in the opening bout. Give Froch his due, as the man will fight three of the toughest fighters in his division back to back.
Froch starts to look even tougher when his recent history prior to the Super Six is added in. If Jermain Taylor entered the Super Six a broken man, it was Froch who broke him in their April 2009 encounter. Prior to that bout was a win that now looks fantastic, namely Froch’s 2008 points victory over Jean Pascal, then undefeated and now the WBC light heavyweight champion. Win or lose, after Froch fights Abraham he will have tangled with five world class fighters in a row, and still have one or two more Super Six bouts ahead of him.
By the time it is all said and done, Carl Froch might very well have tangled with seven of the best fighters to be found in or around his weight class in the space of three years. He might not be the best super middleweight out there, but Froch has established himself as a true ironman.
