I saw a 116-112ish fight in favour of Andre Ward.
Froch was too slow, seemed to be tight and not find his punching rhythm, and what I thought was most significant was his lack of defense. Froch was a very easy target for Ward to hit. I also noted that Froch lacked defensive skills in his fights with Dirrell, Pascal, and Kessler.
Froch was very easy to hit and really lacked a solid defense in this fight.
Credit where credit is due, Congrats to Ward on the win and he beat a very good fighter in Froch.
Carl Froch gave a good effort and for that I salute him. Froch is a very tough guy, he just lacks some speed and also his defense needs to be improved. He is too easy to hit. I feel that Froch could probably move up to 175lbs and become a champ there if he wanted to.
Personally, Ive never been a big fan of Carl Froch but as a white athlete of course I always support him and his achievements regardless. However, Ive always much preferred Lucian Bute or even Art Abraham.
Also, for the record, I believe Froch would get KO'd by Lucian. Carl is way too easy to hit, he is wide open to be punched. Yes, Froch has a good chin, but Ward is a non-puncher.
In my opinion, I think Bute stops Froch. The way Froch sticks his head out he is begging to be KO'd by Lucian. Lucian also hits much harder than Ward.
As a final note on the fight, let me say that its bizarre to hear media reports about how Ward "dominated" Froch. Ummm... 115-113x2, as 2 judges had it is not "dominated". It was a competitive fight, Ward did not win it walking away. It was a competitive fight, not a domination by any means.
Disappointing result, but then again I had predicted this would happen so Im not surprised!
Some thoughts on a possible Bute/Ward fight:
Bute/Ward is the obvious superfight to make at 168, that has been building for about 3 years now.
Interesting that after the fight, Showtime's Jim Grey asked Ward if he wants to fight Bute and Ward basically said "I need some time off after this fight. Im not obligated or bound to do anything".
To me that implies he probably will pursue other options in the immediate future. Anthony Dirrell is Ward's mandatory, that would be a very easy fight for Ward.
Bute is much faster, hits harder, better boxer, better defense than Froch so I guarantee he will be much more competitive with Ward.
I will admit that Ward probably deserves one easy fight as his next fight.
But after that, certainly the most legitimate opponent for him to fight is Lucian Bute.
Ward's management team is already blackballing Bute and claiming theyre not obligated to him and pursuing other options :crazy:
Realistically, Id say that if Bute/Ward does happen it does in late 2012/early 2013.
However I get the feeling Ward and his team arent keen on taking the risk of Bute. I dont think Ward can run from Bute forever though. Bute is a clear no.1 guy and has been for a very longtime. Then again, manytimes superfights dont get made.