BoxRec

Cent0089 wrote: ↑02 Mar 2026, 17:41 Carl Froch beat Jean Pascal, Jermain Taylor, Lucian Bute, Mikkel Kessler and George Groves. All of them were faster than him and IMO hits harder, despite Froch being hard puncher himself. Also not sure if Artur Abraham was slower than Froch. Lot of those guys also had better boxing technique than Froch. It is crazy how far his toughness got him with such limited boxing skills. Some of those clean bombs he took right to the chin would do KO of the year on some other boxers.

Froch still has too much for Big John Fury, the fighting man, 100-0 on the hard road......

Cent0089 wrote: ↑02 Mar 2026, 17:41 Carl Froch beat Jean Pascal, Jermain Taylor, Lucian Bute, Mikkel Kessler and George Groves. All of them were faster than him and IMO hits harder, despite Froch being hard puncher himself. Also not sure if Artur Abraham was slower than Froch. Lot of those guys also had better boxing technique than Froch. It is crazy how far his toughness got him with such limited boxing skills. Some of those clean bombs he took right to the chin would do KO of the year on some other boxers.

Froch is one of the great overachievers in recent years to me. Skill wise he should've never beaten any of those guys, but he did due to an unbelievable amount of grit and determination. A man with a Hard chin, Great stamina and a Good punch, and an Endless amount of Determination can prove to be a nightmare for you, no matter how much better you're supposed to be. Froch proved it more times than most guys with his kinda technical limitations could've.

gilgamesh wrote: ↑04 Mar 2026, 15:31

Cent0089 wrote: ↑02 Mar 2026, 17:41 Carl Froch beat Jean Pascal, Jermain Taylor, Lucian Bute, Mikkel Kessler and George Groves. All of them were faster than him and IMO hits harder, despite Froch being hard puncher himself. Also not sure if Artur Abraham was slower than Froch. Lot of those guys also had better boxing technique than Froch. It is crazy how far his toughness got him with such limited boxing skills. Some of those clean bombs he took right to the chin would do KO of the year on some other boxers.

Froch is one of the great overachievers in recent years to me. Skill wise he should've never beaten any of those guys, but he did due to an unbelievable amount of grit and determination. A man with a Hard chin, Great stamina and a Good punch, and an Endless amount of Determination can prove to be a nightmare for you, no matter how much better you're supposed to be. Froch proved it more times than most guys with his kinda technical limitations could've.

Agree with all that. I think his skills were underrated, though.

It was apparent from as early on as the Commonwealth title fight against Adamu (2004) that Froch didn't have the speed to box the way he originally wanted to, i.e. more like a slick sharpshooter. He struggled until flooring Adamu and the scorecard was quite close. The Magee fight followed a similar pattern, generally looking a step behind till the KO.

But over time, he got better at compensating for slowness with very good timing, calm under fire, and a knack for knowing when to pour it on and when to stand off. Add that to his very long reach and physical attributes and he was able to impose himself on virtually everyone bar Ward (or IMO Dirrell - robbery)

ya for sure. froch was slow but there were some skills there. a good stiff sharp jab, and aside from the dirrell fight he never really had too much trouble finding the target (groves I was more of him taking several rounds to recover and start his attack than him missing ).

watching george foreman in his prime the other day it was a similar thing. slow hands and crude technique, could give the impression there was little skill there. but his jab was actually really stabbing and he was excellent at mixing up the range and timing. he would throw short tapping shots , then a big winging one, then something in between. it was hard to tell what was coming even though he lacked hand speed

like froch, foreman really didnt have too many troubles landing on much faster, slicker opponents (with some exceptions of course )

IIRC Foreman learned a lot of his style close up from Sandy Saddler, who'd mastered the art of being a rough tough imposing fighter thirty years before. Lots of old-school stuff like the long guard, occupying space with feints and hand movement, pushing on opponents' shoulders, etc., mixed up with massive power shots. They don't look a million miles apart style-wise.