Nottingham’s WBC super middleweight champion Carl Froch admitted he has been working on his defence for the Super Six World Boxing Classic tournament after suffering the first knockdown of his career against Jermain Taylor in his last outing in the ring.

Froch, who faces undefeated American Andre Dirrell in his first match of the competition, maintained that he has been working on a Floyd Mayweather Jr style defence, which he feels can help him overcome the “unknown quantity” of the tournament.

“I’ve been working on my defence quite a lot actually. I’ve been working on keeping my left hand a little bit higher and getting my right glove in front of my face and moving.

“Whether or not you’re going to see a more defensive fighter from myself remains to be seen because you just go back to primal instincts when you fight. I mean I could work for ten weeks in the gym and keep my guard up nice and tight and work on my defence and come fight night that can go out the window,” he said.

Froch claims that regardless of a fighter’s guard there is always the possibility of taking big shots as is evident in his 20 knockouts from 25 fights against opponents with high guards, but insisted he will be looking to improve his defence “Pretty Boy” style.

“I’ll be working on my defence, head movement, right glove blocking stuff, Floyd Mayweather style.

“On the night I’ll just be looking at landing my right hand on Dirrell’s chin and that’s what makes me such an exciting fighter.”

Dirrell along with fellow American Andre Ward are the least experienced fighters going into the Super Six competition. Mikkel Kessler and Froch are current world champions, Jermain Taylor and Germany’s Arthur Abraham are former world champions, but for the novice Americans this will be their first time fighting at such a high level.

However, Froch played down Dirrell’s lack of experience stating the Olympic medal winner and undefeated fighter could provide an upset, although not against Nottingham’s best.

“Style makes fights and Andre Dirrell has very fast hands so I think it will do me a favour to keep my guard up a little bit,” said the champion.