Super Six Classic Betting: Carl Froch ready to leave Kessler out in the cold

Boxing Betting / Ralph Ellis / 19 February 2010 / Leave a Comment

Carl Froch is putting his good condition down to a combination of hard work in the gym and ice baths

"Mind you the whole Super Six Series has become dogged with difficulties. It was always a brave idea to put them all into the mix in a sport where managers and promoters carefully choose their opponents, and over time it’s getting complicated."

Ralph Ellis tells us why Carl Froch is keeping things cool ahead of his Super Six Classic fight against Mikkel Kessler in a tournament that has had its fair share of problems over the past few weeks.

Carl Froch has still got fifty quid riding on Nottingham Forest winning promotion from when he did Betfair's Big Interview that could make £200 profit for breast cancer research. Although he did say at the time that he actually hoped his favourite club didn't make it up to the Premier League because he feared they'd come straight back down again.

Well now the Nottingham boxer, the reigning WBC world super middleweight champion, has got another reason to hope that his beloved Forest's season fizzles out. His fight against Mikkel Kessler, next up in the Super Six series, has been switched to April 24 which is the same day as the last home game of the season at the City Ground. And the clash of dates means he will struggle to get much of his fan base to make the trip to Herning in Denmark to cheer him on.

This was due to have been a unification fight, of course, before Kessler lost the WBA version of the title to American Andre Ward. That's not happening now, but 32-year-old Froch is still doing everything right to make sure he extends his unbeaten record to 27 fights.

He's told today's Daily Star about his new regime of ice baths after training, a technique that's the latest Sports Science craze and is used now by most professional football and rugby teams. Going into icy water repairs minor muscle tears quickly and allows faster recovery before the next training session.

"It's all great preparation," he says. "I'm feeling better for it and I know I need to because Kessler will be a very dangerous opponent. He's just lost and it will bring the best out of him in front of his home fans because he is thinking: 'If I lose this my career is over'."
The fight can have the opposite effect for Froch, because victory will move him into the Super Six semi-finals and closer to his ultimate aim of unifying the super middleweight world titles. At the moment he's [4.4] to finish top of the imaginative Super Six series, and victory against Kessler will see that price drop.

Mind you the whole Super Six Series has become dogged with difficulties. It was always a brave idea to put them all into the mix in a sport where managers and promoters carefully choose their opponents, and over time it's getting complicated.

Former Olympic gold medallist Ward is [2.34] favourite, partly because his next opponent Jermain Taylor dropped out of the series and he now fights Allan Green (no, not the radio commentator, he'd be in the heavyweight division and there would be a queue wanting to knock him out!!).

Just to add to the confusion second favourite Arthur Abraham at [3.15] is waiting to learn if his next bout against Andre Dirrell will go ahead, after the American suffered a back injury in training.

Forest manager Billy Davies, who has been grumbling about the club's lack of investment in the transfer window, must wish he could pick and choose his matches and postpone the ones he didn't want in the same way! But sadly for Froch he knows Forest v Plymouth will go ahead on April 24 regardless! So will his fight - and one home win, one away win on the day will do nicely!

Five things you might not know about Billy Davies

1)Born in Glasgow in May 1964, his full name is William McIntosh Davies. His dad worked in the Govan shipyards alongside Sir Alex Ferguson's father

2)Fergie turned down the chance to sign the young Davies at St Mirren. "Biggest mistake of his managerial career" Davies has said!

3)A midfielder, he was also rejected as a player by Dave Sexton after brief trials at Manchester United

4)He was sacked from his first management job at Motherwell after taking three points from seven games but got back into football as Craig Brown's number two at Preston - where his career in England ultimately took off

5)He has two teenage sons - William and Matt - and when he lost his job at Derby he took the whole family on a round the world holiday