Boxing Betting / Ralph Ellis / 21 July 2010 /

Ralph Ellis tells us why new-born babies and preparations for big boxing matches don't go hand in hand and how it's make or break time for Carl Froch...

Spent last weekend with my brother, which was a delightful chance to see little Adam, my six-month old nephew. What a happy, smiling chap. Or what a happy, smiling chap during the day, at any rate. He's teething and at night it was a very different, and very noisy, story.

So I can understand exactly why Carl Froch has taken the tough decision to move out from home and leave his partner Rachael and their one-month old baby boy Rocco for the next ten weeks. Babies and sleep don't go together. Lack of sleep and winning title fights don't match up either.

Froch faces a fight that will define the last part of his boxing career in October when he meets Arthur Abraham in an effort to rescue his hopes in the Super Six World Boxing Classic. Briefly favourite to win the tournament aimed at finding the world's top Super Middleweight after he launched his campaign by beating Andre Dirrell, it fell apart when he suffered a points defeat to Mikkel Kessler. Beating Abraham in Monte Carlo on October 2 now represent's the 33-year-old's last hope of a place in the semi-finals and the chance to end his career as undisputed world champion.

The Nottingham based boxer has been telling the Daily Star today about his hopes for the campaign and why he's having to leave home. "It will be hard leaving the family but this is such a big fight that my preparations must be spot-on," he says.

He'll also finding himself working at the English Institute of Sport in Sheffield alongside some of Britain's 2012 Olympic hopefuls including Anthony Ogogo, Steve Simmons and Frank Buglioni and reckons their youth and hunger will rub off. "None of them are guaranteed an Olympic place so being around all that energy has put a bounce back in my step."

Froch's camp weren't happy at the judging in Denmark when he lost his unbeaten record to Kessler, and three American judges will score the next contest. That's good, but the real difference is that after the first defeat of his professional career Froch has had a stark reminder that he can't take the sport for granted. As well as losing ground in the Super Six series he also had to give up the WBC world title that he'd worked so hard to gain, and that has clearly hurt his pride.

At the moment he's anywhere between [7.2] and [21.0] to end up winning the Super Six series and if you can get something matched at around [15.0] that's worth a punt. Certainly "The Cobra" has got the sting to catch Abraham who was getting hammered by Andre Dirrell before being disqualified for throwing a low blow when they met in March.

Andre Ward is currently [1.81] favourite for the tournament, but that looks like one to lay. Poorly rated before he beat Kessler with the help of an accidental clash of heads, his next victory was only against last minute stand-in Allan Green and that's not yet enough to justify the former Olympic Gold medal winner being odds on.

Five things you might not know about Anthony Ogogo

Born November 1988 in Lowestoft, Norfolk, he went to Kirkley High School - the same school that rock band The Darkness attended. It was also the setting for Channel 4's Rock School.

He has four sisters, Joanne, Toni, Leanne and Carly

He was 16 when he won the IABA Cadet World Championships at 70kg, watched by Amir Khan among a 1,000 capacity crowd in Liverpool.

His boxing career went off the rails when he got caught up in showbiz culture after entering Big Brother - Celebrity Hijack in 2008. He finished fourth in the show.

He once fought with Chelsea captain John Terry - as part of an advert for a facewash

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