Carl Froch: Andre Dirrell was a coward

The "coward" word had been thrown around a lot amongst top-level fighters lately, but that's exactly how Carl Froch describes Andre Dirrell who heads into a title fight this weekend against James DeGale. In a column he's written for Sky Sports, Froch offered assessment of Dirrell based on his own 2009 encounter with the man during the Super Six tournament:

"He is very athletic, he is quite strong, he can punch a bit and is actually very talented but I just have a feeling the computer might not be working."

Froch also remarked that when watching brother Anthony Dirrell fight Badou Jack last month for the title, he thought the same thing as when he faced Andre Dirrell in 2009:

"I remember thinking, 'go on then, throw some punches, it's your world title on the line, show some enthusiasm', but he didn't."

Carl goes on to infer that Andre may be his own worst enemy because of his mindset, wanting to do just enough in the ring to nick a win, and that was the same problem that arose for Anthony Dirrell. He then admits that he's heard that Andre has been fighting more aggressively as of late, and that he'll need that in order to get past DeGale, though he's certainly not rooting for that to happen.

"He is athletic, he is tall and slim and has no trouble making the weight and as it's in America, he could well be the favourite."

"But he just comes across to me as a coward. He's just not a very manly man, the way he ran and held against me and the way he seemed to throw himself on the floor against Arthur Abraham. I genuinely hope DeGale does a job on him."