BoxRec

http://news.boxrec.com/news/2010/i-work ... -interview

Probably my favourite current fighter. Yes, he has he flaws but I've always liked his old school attitude and his 'tell it how it is' style.

I too like Froch.
Just think its too late to do much with his (lack of) defence.

Lets enjoy him for as long as he`s plying his trade.

Gotta love Carl, his interviews are always the mustard, and he shoots straight from the lip!

However, couple of points.

1 Where is this 'high guard' he mentions, and exactly when was he blocking dirrell's shots?
2 With regard to cheerleading - I wonder how happy Carl wouid have been had the commentators said what I believe to be true and many others, which is that he was a lucky lad to get the decision against Dirrell.

Cracking interview Ian.

Good to see Froch give Magee props and good luck for his EBU bid.

Froch is honest & that honesty in such a sport is refreshing! If only all fighters had his attitude, you can tell he will fight anyone, he wants to test himself. He is not the complete package & knws that himself.

Would love to see Froch-Abraham!

Meantime, keep working on the defence, Carl. Hand up I said!

I dont like him I find him cocky and annoying but I see how he is popular with his action style and honesty, Kessler vs Froch will be very entertaining

i think in between the lines he is having a dig at amir khan at the end of the interview..

jamesmcdonnell wrote:Gotta love Carl, his interviews are always the mustard, and he shoots straight from the lip!

However, couple of points.

1 Where is this 'high guard' he mentions, and exactly when was he blocking dirrell's shots?
2 With regard to cheerleading - I wonder how happy Carl wouid have been had the commentators said what I believe to be true and many others, which is that he was a lucky lad to get the decision against Dirrell.

I think he is referring to his opponents' high guard and pointing out that he could hit them.

He just looked so SLOOOOOOW against Dirrell, whose lateral movement made it impossible for Froch to land very much.

Hopefully he can work on not getting hit so much - although Dirrell too was missing with stuff, the sharper shots came from him.

dookus wrote:He just looked so SLOOOOOOW against Dirrell, whose lateral movement made it impossible for Froch to land very much.

Hopefully he can work on not getting hit so much - although Dirrell too was missing with stuff, the sharper shots came from him.

I agree he looks slow at the top level, I have watched Carl since he turned pro in his early BBC days and must say I am so surprised the speed edge that Taylor and Dirrell have had over him in last 2 fights.

I never thought of Carl as a slow fighter before those 2 fights, but there was a sizeable difference in speed in both fights which worries me for future fights.

He still won the 2 fights though so there's at least that, I am in the camp that Dirrell didn;t really do enough that night, didn't land enough meaningful shots, he was scared of Carl's power and didnt commit enough to truly say he could have clearly won the fight imho.

In this context, do you think boxing is pricing itself out of terrestrial television in the current climate?

No, I think it's more the other way around. I think TV is placing a lower and lower value on boxing and the sport is hitting a ceiling, when compared to other sports like football which financially, gets higher and higher each year.

And that is why he's not a businessman, boxing is clearly pricing itself out and as for the football, don't you worry the bubble is going to burst soon.

TheCobra wrote:

dookus wrote:He just looked so SLOOOOOOW against Dirrell, whose lateral movement made it impossible for Froch to land very much.

Hopefully he can work on not getting hit so much - although Dirrell too was missing with stuff, the sharper shots came from him.

I agree he looks slow at the top level, I have watched Carl since he turned pro in his early BBC days and must say I am so surprised the speed edge that Taylor and Dirrell have had over him in last 2 fights.

I never thought of Carl as a slow fighter before those 2 fights, but there was a sizeable difference in speed in both fights which worries me for future fights.

He still won the 2 fights though so there's at least that, I am in the camp that Dirrell didn;t really do enough that night, didn't land enough meaningful shots, he was scared of Carl's power and didnt commit enough to truly say he could have clearly won the fight imho.

I think Carl edged it; those scruffy shots of his were a little more consistently scoring than Dirrell's occasional flashy counters. Honestly, though, that was the American's fight to win; every time he opened up you couldn't see Froch getting out of the way, and it was his repeated holding and then firing from out of range (being too scared to commit) that let Froch nick it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fztqCbOUiTY

i thought dirrell won.

i'm not just saying that cos i dislike froch.

david haye boxed very similar over in germany and got it.

dirrell didn't.

if it wasn't for this tournament u can bet ya life the wbc would be forcing froch to rematch him immediately.

i respect froch as a fighter though.

he's good.

kessler needs to recapture some form to beat him.

hitman_hatton1 wrote::

i respect froch as a fighter though.

he's good.

It's took me ten years to get a comment like that out of ya

Happy New Year Hitman

hitman_hatton1 wrote: i respect froch as a fighter though.

he's good.

kessler needs to recapture some form to beat him.

Did you get laid recently mate?

Ian 'Mr' McNeilly wrote:http://news.boxrec.com/news/2010/i-work ... -interview

Probably my favourite current fighter. Yes, he has he flaws but I've always liked his old school attitude and his 'tell it how it is' style.

x2.

Very good read Ian

hitman_hatton1 wrote:i thought dirrell won.

i'm not just saying that cos i dislike froch.

david haye boxed very similar over in germany and got it.

dirrell didn't.

if it wasn't for this tournament u can bet ya life the wbc would be forcing froch to rematch him immediately.

i respect froch as a fighter though.

he's good.

kessler needs to recapture some form to beat him.

I really thought Froch nicked that fight, and I'm not a huge fan. I like to get behind UK fighters but I also appreciate good boxers and am not so blinded by nationalism that I can't see faults in our lad's styles, and Froch is FULL of faults. I thought he looked slow and got hit too much against Pascal and I only watched the Taylor fight the once but I was struggling to give Froch a round before he put Taylor's lights out right in the last minute. I don't think he looked good at all in the Dirrell fight, but I really thought he won it. I don't think the win was that controversial at all. It's hard to explain, but he just WORKED the win out. And so I have to respect the guy, because he has just fought 3 back to back very tough fights and come through them all. No bums, no tomato cans. He seems alright. I don't think he's arrogant you have to have an attitude like that to be a pro boxer. Self doubt is not something you want to experience if you are fighting for a living, especially at Froch's level. It's not like he's Naz or anything.

Oh yeah, and as for the Haye fight, I was as disapointed with Haye's performance as anyone because I really like David Haye and go to all his fights if I can. He's a Londoner, me and my mates have followed him so he's 'our boy' and I want him to do well above any other boxer. Yeah, I wish he'd fought more aggressively but there are a lot of things Dirrell did that lost him the fight that Haye didn't do: Dirrell hugged Froch all night (he got a point taken off for it- not sure if I think that was a good decision but it was obvious he WAS holding too much) which Haye clearly didn't do; Dirrell cried to the ref in the middle of the fight and got punched in the face in the process- did Haye do that?; Dirrell FELL OVER at least twice (maybe 3 times man I dunno I watched that fight twice that's enough isn't it?), seemingly on purpose- Haye never done that either. And the BIG difference? Haye punched Valuev more often, and harder, than Valuev punched him. I don't really remember Valuev landing clean at all. I think we all watched it knowing that it was in Germany and they have iffy decisions over there, so we all thought Haye would have to smash the absolute granny out of the big fella to nick the round, so it felt like Haye wasn't going to get it. Really, if you watch the fight without that in mind it wasn't even close. Haye won almost every round.

Besides, when people compare the Haye-Valuev fight with Froch-Dirrell they neglect to acknowledge that Carl Froch is a much better boxer than Valuev, and that's why he won. Also Froch and Dirrell are the same size, give or take a couple of pounds and the odd inch. Dirrell looked like the better boxer when he opened up, but he didn't do that enough, and Carl chased him down and bashed him about. Valuev couldn't do that with Haye.

After Kessler got beat by Ward, I am going to really root for Froch to pull another tough win out of the bag. I like Kessler, but maybe he's past it now and I wouldn't like to see an American win the tournament. I don't hate them, almost every American person I have known has been lovely really welcoming and friendly (whereas us Brits are a bit spikier and resereved), it's just that they have been on top of the game too long. It's like Australia. I love Australia and the Ozzies but they f*cking win everything, they're so good at sport. Beating them in Rugby or something is sooo sweet. It's kind of like that, a friendly rivalry. So I am not totally sold on Froch, but I'm behind him now.

His bird is fit as well.

I have actually said for some time that Carl would come unstuck once he stepped up to world class levels. And I don't consider myself too wrong with that. He was seconds away from losing to Taylor, and perhaps deserved to lose on the cards against Dirrell.

His problem isn't just his defence, it's his technique in general. Much or his power comes from planting his feet hard, and that presents a lovely target for high quality fighters who have the defence, footwork, accuracy and power to capitalize on some of his wild punches. Obviously, though, his defence is the main problem, and that problem, in my view, isn't so much that he keeps his left down, but that his right doesn't cover his chin -- plenty enough great fighters have fought with a low lead hand for us to consider that the problem. His problem is that when he throws the jab, the right fist goes back somewhere to around six inches behind and above his head, which is dreadful. Even Floyd Mayweather and Junior Witter fight with the right up, and, indeed, as they get into range, both hands up, before sometimes dropping one to cover the body on the inside.

But I wonder whether we just judge Carl all wrong. We seem to expect him to be a pound for pound great. I think that everyone would agree that he's one of the best 75 pound for pound fighters in the world, and he's probably in the top 50. If he was a footballer of that caliber, he'd be a gajillionairre by now, and lauded as an exceptional player.

So, should the debate about whether he's world class not be over? He clearly is, because he's one of the best five or six fighters in his weight class.

Further, he's brilliant for the sport. He's entertaining to watch, articulate and likeable out of the ring, fights anyone in an era where challenge-aversion is endemic, and really lives the game, keeping himself in tip-top condition between fights.

Also, despite have a seriously deficient technique, boxing was always a sport in which heart and toughness could challenge technique, was it not? Why would that have changed? Why is a great chin, the willingness to take punishment to get a chance to dish out your own, and superior fitness somehow less worthy, and less indicative of a world class fighter, than brilliant technique and blinding handspeed? Was Claude Makelele any less good than Rivaldo? Was Steve Waugh not as good as his twin brother Mark?

One more thing about Carl, he's one of he best finishers in the game, and has a ice, ice cool head on those shoulders -- two more underrated assets.

It's just that despite all this, he just doesn't have the technique in general, and defence especially, to rise above his peers in the way some people seem to need him to do for them to call him world class.