• Super-middleweight

Kessler rematch offers Froch 'redemption'

ESPN staff
January 21, 2013

IBF champion Carl Froch cannot wait to get into the ring with Mikkel Kessler in his bid to cement his legacy as one of the great modern super-middleweights before he hangs up his gloves.

The Dane's team finally agreed to a rematch with Froch in the UK just hours before the IBF set a mandatory title defence for the Nottingham native with Canada's Adonis Stevenson, giving Froch the chance to avenge his 2010 defeat.

A unification bout with WBA champion Kessler, and beyond that a return to the ring with Andre Ward, the only other fighter to beat Froch during his professional career, would be a fitting finale for the 35-year-old.

Speaking on Buncey's Boxing Podcast, Froch admitted the points defeat to Kessler in 2010 continues to eat away at him, and he is delighted to have the chance for revenge.

"It was fantastic news, it's a chance for me to redeem myself, where he's got a win on me on his record. It will be nice to rectify that loss," Froch said on ESPN's latest podcast.

"It's also important for me to get my legacy secured and intact because, boxing at the level I'm boxing at, when you get beat it grinds away at you and upsets you.

"It's one of the two losses, the other one being Andre Ward, that I can try and get the record straight with."

Froch believes that the conditions will not count against him this summer, with Kessler coming to the UK this time - and while he is likely to announce a London venue for the fight when the details are announced next week, he is in no doubt as to where the pair would meet if he had his say.

"When I boxed him before I boxed in Denmark," Froch added. "It was a good fight, it was close, everyone enjoyed it, but he was always going to get the win if it was a close fight.

"Fair enough, he beat me fair and square. I just feel that in the UK, me firing on all cylinders, Kessler won't have a chance. Not because it's in the UK, but because when it was in Denmark I wasn't at my best for various reasons - one of them being the volcanic ash cloud.

"Nottingham Forest's City Ground, that's where I'd have it," he added without a moment's hesitation when asked for his dream venue.

Despite the last-minute nature of the deal, Froch believes getting Kessler back into the ring was always a certainty.

"He's an honourable man, he a warrior like me. Fighting is in his heart. When I said to him 'rematch someday' and he said 'yes I'll honour you with a rematch' I knew he meant it.

"I was going to start giving him a bit of stick because it has taken him a long time to tell me when this fight was on. I wondered why - it was just him sorting out his business side of things with his promoters."

And though Froch insists that while the Dane can expect a war in the ring, beyond the ropes the duo are good friends.

"We've got various things in common - motorbikes, he's got a couple of properties that he rents out - we're just two of the same kind of people. We were talking about women and all sorts.

"I consider him a friend, I really do, he's cut from the same cloth as me. The way he fights, mentalities, mindsets - I don't have a bad word to say about him if I'm totally honest."

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