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(Boxing) What to make of Carl Froch?
By Zach Arnold | April 25, 2009
He beat Jermain Taylor in R12 on Saturday night in front of 3,726 at Foxwoods. Ouch. Little Rock this audience was not.
- The Associated Press: Froch defends super middleweight title, re-match with Taylor likely
- Boxing Scene: Carl Froch rescures title from the jaws of defeat
- The Guardian (UK): Froch announces himself to America with Jermain Taylor knockout
- The London Telegraph: Late late KO from Froch the rising marquee star of British boxing
- BBC Sport: Froch produces one of the great comebacks in boxing ever
- Setanta Sports: Froch calls out Joe Calzaghe
Topics: Boxing, Media, Zach Arnold | 15 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |
Wow, that’s a helluva number. Sucks to be that promoter.
That was a very good fight with an incredible 12th round. I had Froch down by a large margin going into the 12th round, as did two of the judges. The one judge who had it 8 rounds to 3 in favor of Froch going into the 12th round is right up there with the two judges who had Bisping beating Hamill in the “incompetent at best” category.
I wasn’t paying attention much to the middle rounds, so I can’t comment on the judging. The last round was fantastic. I’m a type of person who typically thinks if there isn’t much time left, if the ref can let it continue they should. With that said, it was a perfect stoppage.
I really hadn’t heard Gus Johnson announcing before he started with EliteXC. I have been unimpressed with him as a combat sports announcer. At first I just thought he wasn’t comfortable with MMA, but a lot of the issues he has are the same when he is commentating boxing.
Forget about Mike Goldberg…. I think Gus is worse. I don’t know if it is a lack of knowledge of the sports he is commentating for, or just him trying to hype the fights. He comes across more as a cheerleader then an unbiased announcer.
So much for “mainstream” commentators making the fighting experience better.
I don’t get Showtime. 🙁
I did watch the bouts on HBO. Juanma vs. Penalosa. Outstanding fight. Penalosa is one tough S.O.B.
10,000+ at this one, but it was in Puerto Rico.
Very good win for Froch but his style wont have him carrying the belt for long. His defense is non existant and get shit with way too many right hands.
I didn’t see this (I normally don’t watch that much boxing) but telling from the response here, it seems like this is an exciting fight. I’ll check it out.
Decent fight (better than most of Taylor’s fights given his lack of interest) but Taylor’s lack of killer instinct cost him as Froch forced him back more and more and, as usual for Taylor, he gassed out and get clocked in the last round, dropped and then pummeled on his fight until the referee intervened (he slumped in a heap after Froch was pushed away so he was quite clearly out of it). Froch likely can’t beat the best at 168 (Kessler, Bute and Andrade) but he’ll make for exciting fights given his chin-sticking out, lobbing bombs style nonetheless.
The way froch finished it was great. Never wasted a punch and was calm making sure he landed his shots. At lot of fighters would got too close smothering there work but froch did a great job. A rematch looks likely but think Froch would win that inside 8 rounds.
Gus Johnson added so much to that incredible 12th round. I was against it at first when Showtime replaced Steve Albert with Gus Johnson, but after that 12th round, I’m not so sure anymore. Albert is more of a traditional boxing play-by-play man, whereas Johnson is more of a “telling the story of any given fight” announcer, much like Jim Lampley, only not constantly missing big punches landing or saying that something landed when it didn’t like Lampley does. Johnson can add a lot of drama and excitement to a big fight finish, as play-by-play men are supposed to do, without saying the same exact thing every time (“and it is all over!”) like Mike Goldberg does.
The theater at foxwoods only holds 4000 so that is about the size of crowd they expected.The welfare check/license fee from HBO or Showtime is all boxing promoters care about.If they can get a nice gate it is just icing on the cake.
Zach, why did you remove my comment? It wasn’t critical of you at all.
Surely you didn’t mean to remove my comment. Right? (I’m guessing that you intended to remove the one just before mine and accidentally took mine out in the process.)
Ed. — Correct.
That crowd was incredibly hot. The entire building was on its feet for the finish. How often do you see that? That fight is what makes lifelong boxing fans.
Great fight, and Froch’s determination i scary. I have never been a fan of Taylor, but expected improvement at 168 as far as endurance. He doesn’t seem that busy to get so tired. Either way excellent fight, I had no probs with the announce team, and Sho continues to deliver.
An exciting battle for boxing fans. Before the TKO, I also had Taylor leading into the 12th round. Froch did everything he could to seal the fight away. And he did it in exciting fashion.
Hi, can i firstly say that i along with the rest of you guys had Carl down in the rounds going into the last round, but no as big a margin as they had it.
Taylor tired badly from the 7 onwards and only came out in bursts for the last 10 sec or so, Froch had a better work rate.
I would also like to say that i’ve followed Carl for many years and that has to be one of the poorest i’ve seen from him, he too has admitted this. He was struggling with his eye and was taken to the hospital only days before the fight , coupled with the fact he was only given 10 mins to warm up , he still didn’t have his gloves on when the Green fight had just finished. The experience gained by fighting against a hostile crowd in such a big fight will be fantastic for Carl, he’s used to fighting infront of 9/10,000 of his supporters in Nottingham.
Full credit must also go to Taylor, thats the best i’ve seen from him in years , he was doing 18 rounds straight in training so it could be a mental thing with Jermain as to why he tired so badly but taking nothing away from Carl , the 12th round was brilliant and i can assure you guys, there is ALOT more to come from the Cobra. He’s not scared of ANYONE, he’s not bothered about his unbeaten record like Joe Calzaghe etc, all Froch wants to do is be the best he can be and if tht means going to Canada to fight Bute or going to Denamark to fight Kessler then so be it and for that he’s starting to get the praise and recognition he so rightly deserves.
I urge you all to follow the Cobra on his quest for greatness, it’ll be some ride.