Kessler beats Froch to win super middleweight belt -- USA Today

By The Associated Press

HERNING, Denmark (AP) — Danish boxer Mikkel Kessler beat Carl Froch in a unanimous decision Saturday to win the Briton's WBC super middleweight title.

The judges scored the 12-round bout 117-111, 116-112 and 115-113 in Kessler's favor, despite the Dane being bothered by a cut over his left eye in the final rounds.

The bout was part of the Super Six tournament, which is designed to give six of the best 168-pound boxers in the world three fights each, with points awarded based upon the outcome.

Froch beat Jermain Taylor of the United States with a 12th-round knockout last year in his first title defense, and then overcame Andre Dirrell with a split decision in October in his first Super Six bout.

This was his first loss, taking his record to 26-1 with 20 knockouts. Kessler is 43-2, with 32 knockouts.

Both men had been oozing with confidence in the past days but the Dane was backed by a deafening partisan crowd, which vastly outnumbered the roughly 200 British supporters.

Kessler used his jab to take control of the early rounds before Froch found his stride and started fighting more aggressively toward the end of the third. Kessler went down in the fifth, but the judges ruled it a slip.

Kessler then regained his composure and gradually wore the Briton down, bloodying Froch's nose and easily avoiding most of his punches. However, Kessler then started bleeding from the cut over his left eyebrow, and Froch tried in vain to increase the damage over the last rounds.

The victory was Kessler's first in the tournament after Andre Ward stunned the Dane with a dominant victory in a unanimous technical decision last year.

Kessler and Froch now both have two points from two fights in the tournament.

Saturday's bout drew some 10,000 people at Herning's congress and sports center .

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Source: usatoday.com