Britain’s Carl Froch got his
revenge with victory over Denmark’s Mikkel Kessler in a unanimous points
decision to retain the IBF super middleweight title in a thrilling clash at a
packed 02 Arena on Saturday.
The 35-year-old Froch, who
lost to Kessler in Denmark three years ago, put on a typically gutsy
performance to win with a scorecard that read 115-113, 116-112 and 118-110 in
favour of the Nottingham fighter to the delight of the 20,000 crowd.
Froch’s record is now 31-2,
with his only other defeat coming at the hands of American Andre Ward in
Atlantic City in 2011, compared to Kessler’s 46-3 after an action-packed fight
that saw the Dane hanging on near the end of the final round.
“It feels really, really good,
only thing that feels bad is I have had to beat a real gentleman and a nice
man, Mikkel Kessler,” Froch told Sky Sports. “It’s 1-1 now, who knows do you
fancy a third one? Best of three maybe?
“I deserved to win, but he won’t
lie down for any man and massive respect to him,” added Froch before turning
his thoughts to a possible rematch with unbeaten WBA title holder Ward who was
watching at ringside.
“The winner of this fight
should be moving on to avenge their other loss and now I move on to the second
best boxer in the world,” said Froch. “Let’s get Andre Ward over to the UK and
fight him here.”
The 34-year-old Kessler, whose
only other defeats were against unbeaten Welshman Joe Calzaghe in 2007 and Ward
in 2009, said: “I gave it my all but didn’t have the energy and couldn’t cope
with Carl. It is nice to fight such a warrior.” (Read the original story)
