The Sporting calendar

WBC super-middleweight champion Carl Froch, retained his title in dramatic style, with a stoppage just 14 seconds from the end of his fight with Jermain Taylor.

Froch looked confused and off balance for the early rounds, as Taylor’s handspeed constantly beat him to the punch.
In round three Froch was put down for the first time in his career after taking two heavy blows to the temple, but his eyes were clear and Taylor seemed unsure of continuing the attack to finish him off.
Taylor was by far the more accurate puncher, faster and making Froch reach for his shots, with Froch’s left jab almost none existant in the early rounds.
Despite the knockdown in the third, Froch had more power than Taylor and took the fourth as his jab finally returned.
Froch’s corner reminded him that they expected Taylor to start fast and urged him to relax and stay to the fight plan they had gone through in training, wise words with the benefit of hindsight!
Slowly Froch began to to edge into the fight in the middle rounds, with Taylor only mustering a flurry of punches when the ten second sound signalled the end of the round was near, yet Froch continued to reach for his punches and was being made to look awkward and off balance.
Gradually Froch started to make his power felt, as Taylor started to tire, but more worryingly, Froch still didn’t go to the body.
Taylor had switched his attack flurry to the middle of the rounds by round ten and was trading toe to toe, playing peekaboo style as soon as Froch loaded up to throw a big shot.
By round 12, Froch was well behind on two of the judges scorecards (I had him one round behind) and unbeknown to him, Froch would need a knockout to hold on to his title.
Taylor started slow as Froch piled in the punches, both fighters now tiring, Taylor backed up from one exchange, then seemed to wobble slightly, Froch loaded up and for the first time in the fight, Taylor didn’t seem to be able to move his head out of the way.

As the fight entered the last minute, Taylor backed up on to the ropes and Froch was now punching with nothing coming back, but Taylor had his hands up. A huge uppercut rocked Taylor’s head back and he crumpled in the corner.

Taylor got up at the count of 9 and was immeadiately rocked again back to the ropes, with the fight ending in less than 30 seconds, Froch landed a succession of blows, one of which dropped Taylor’s hands down to his waist and the ref had no choice but to step in and stop the fight.

To Taylor’s credit, he wasn’t critical of the referee at all, despite prompting from the american commentator in the ring, if anything this fight will enhance Froch’s big fight credentials, as so often happens when a champion struggles, all the top fighters around will think they can now take his title away.

Make no mistake, this was a huge gamble for Froch which could easily have ended his world title defence before it even got started, he did well but must use the body attack more to drop the hands of fighters of this class.
Speed is good but they cannot move the body out of the way and if Froch can catch them in the later rounds he needs to use his head more during fights.

Highlights of fight can be seen on itv.com (not sure if American fans can get it?) who should be congratulated for picking up delayed coverage of the fight, when all the other so called “big channels” didn’t want to cover the fight.