Carl Froch has made his way to the Super Six World Boxing Classic final. The UK star beat Glen Johnson in Atlantic City tonight by majority decision, punching his ticket to meet Andre Ward later this year, concluding a two-year tournament.
Froch (28-1, 20 KO) won on scores of 117-111, 116-112 and 114-114. Bad Left Hook scored it 116-113 for Froch. Johnson falls to 51-15-2 (35 KO), and the 42-year-old is once again back in position where he has to all but start from scratch.
The fight didn't disappoint, though it wasn't the Fight of the Year contender some expected. It was a good, tactical bout the whole way through, with both having success along the way. Johnson frequently landed hard, clean right hands over Froch's notoriously low-held left hand, but couldn't hurt Froch enough to make any major difference with the shots. Froch would generally return fire quickly, and overall just did the better work from range, and even often in close. He threw in combination far more than did Johnson, which was to be expected, but probably made the difference in many rounds. He just looked busier, and he was.
Johnson did appear to have some stamina issues in the fight, and that may influence him to go back up to light heavyweight. But if Johnson fights on (at his age, you always have to wonder if he's just had enough), he'll fight legit. He always has, and always will.
For Froch, this is another big win in the career of a fighter who just seems to keep getting better, and finds new ways to beat different, very good fighters. He has another task ahead of him with slick, clever Andre Ward. All in all, the tournament will wrap up with the two fighters who have gained the most from it. Not bad.