Froch Storms Back to KO Taylor in 12th Round
In Saturday night’s super middleweight championship fight between Carl Froch and Jermain Taylor, Froch came from behind to knockout Taylor with just 15 seconds remaining in the 12th round of the fight.
Had Taylor been able to survive those final few ticks, he was winning on two of the scorecards and would have won the fight. It was a cruel finish to a fight for Taylor, who started off by dominating Froch but ran out of gas over the last several rounds of the contest.
The fight began with Taylor displaying his superior hand speed and technical boxing speed. He found a home for his big right hand, and his strong jab was also landing at will. The third round had been the best for Froch, until Taylor landed a monster left hook, followed it up with another and then landed a right to send Froch to the canvas.
Taylor though, clearly remembering his efforts in the Pavlik fight when he sent him down early and expelled all of his energy in trying to unsuccessfully finish him, did not jump on Froch after the knockdown. The cruel twist is that Taylor ran out of energy anyway, and missed his opportunity to finish off Froch in the early rounds.
Taylor continued to win rounds until Froch began to come on after the 6th. In the 7th Taylor showed his first signs of running out of gas, but he continued to soldier on. The 8th round was another round that Froch had been winning only to see Taylor rip it from him. Taylor furiously rallied in the final 20 seconds, landing several huge shots including a jarring left uppercut to win the round.
Froch decisively won the 10th round and the 11th round was a fantastic battle of will and determination, as the two men traded huge shots and battered each other. Both men took and gave some big shots, but Froch did a bit more. Coming out for the 12th it was clear that Taylor was completely drained.
He landed a few nice shots in the beginning of the round but then was badly hurt by Froch and could only hope to avoid damage for the final two minutes of the fight. Back pedaling and desperately holding on, Taylor continued to absorb punishment. Finally Froch sent Taylor down with a big right hand. Taylor gamely got up, but Froch poured on the punishment until the referee stopped the fight.
It was another missed opportunity for Jermain Taylor and it must be a tough pill to swallow. He has suffered two knockout losses in his career, and in both fights he had his man badly hurt and was unable to seal the deal. After the fight, Froch called out Joe Calzaghe.
Earlier in the evening, Allan Green knocked out Carlos De Leon Jr. in the second round of their supper middleweight battle. Green began with a left hook that flattened De Leon. All together, Green knocked him down four times in the second until the referee waved off the fight. Green called out Lucian Bute, who was in attendance, as well as the winner of the main event, who of course ended up being Carl Froch.
