Trash-talk before fights is nothing new in boxing circles, but Carl Froch took it up a notch ahead of his bout with Mikkel Kessler this weekend.
Froch will be defending his IBF super-middleweight title against his Danish opponent in the O2 in London on Saturday night, but the fight will have extra meaning as far as Froch is concerned coming as it does after his defeat to Kessler in a brutal bout in Denmark three years ago.
If anyone had any doubts as to how much the fight means to Froch, he soon dispelled them in remarkably frank fashion at the pre-fight press conference.
“On Saturday night, if I have to, I will kill this fu**er,” Froch is quoted as saying in The Guardian.
“Sorry about the language, but I will kill him. It sounds brutal, it sounds horrible, but that is what this means to me. I am going to leave it in the ring. And when I am smashing his face in, I am going to go for the kill. I am going to go for the finish.”
“I want to do him some damage,” Froch added.
“That’s how I feel inside. If I have to nut him, I will. I have never really felt like this before. I have wanted to win before, but … I don’t know what it is … but there is something about this guy that winds me up. It is anger and I have got to channel it. I am in there not just to win this fight but to put him out of the game.
“I am sick of him, I am sick of the fact that he has beaten me and I want to put the record straight and if that means I have to do him some serious damage, then I will do. So when I get in that ring on Saturday and look across at him and his promoter, I can tell you I am already in the mood.”
And these guys are meant to be friends? Not that Kessler seemed too bothered mind, at least if his Twitter account is anything to go by.
Saturday night should be interesting…
LISTEN: You Must Be Jokin’ podcast – listen to the latest episode now!
