Carl Froch can't wait to go to war with Mikkel Kessler next after outpointing Andre Dirrell in Nottingham on Saturday night.

The 'Cobra' retained his WBC super-middleweight title with a split-decision victory at the Trent FM Arena.

And his next assignment in the new Super Six tournament pits him against dangerous Dane Kessler, the man who gave Joe Calzaghe plenty to think about in their superfight in Cardiff back in 2007.

Froch said: "I know that Kessler will bring a war and the fans will have a real fight to look forward to there. That's a fight I'm relishing. Hopefully he'll beat Andre Ward in their fight next month so both the WBC and WBA belt's will be on the line in our fight.

"I think he will, so far the tournament's gone as I expected. Jermain Taylor got knocked out again in the last round against Arthur Abraham so Taylor must be jinxed because it was exactly the same time in the same round that I knocked him out. I expected Abraham to beat him and obviously I expected to beat Dirrell so it's all gone as I thought it would so far."

Dirrell felt he'd done enough to win Saturday night's bout, but Froch disagreed.

"It was close but I had no doubt in my mind that I had won the fight," he said.

"He's a slick, fast, counter puncher and when you combine that with the negativity he showed in there it made it a very difficult night.

"I don't know how he expected to come to the champion's hometown and take the WBC belt fighting like that. Nobody likes to see someone running and being negative and I think people recognised that I was trying to make a fight of it but it takes two to tango.

"I like to stand there and have a fight and give the fans and the TV viewers a real show but Dirrell wasn't interested in that kind of fight.

"I'm sure he'll improve from that performance and it will have been a learning experience for him but at that kind of pace I could have gone 25 rounds."

Froch hailed the 8,000 local fans who turned out in the middle of the night to watch their man.

He said: "The Nottingham fans really turned out for me so I'm a little disappointed that they didn't get to see more of a fight. Their support is a privilege and an honour and I'm taken aback that 8,000 people would come out to support me at 2 in the morning.

"I feel sorry for the fans that it wasn't a more exciting fight but I can only fight what's in front of me. I'm satisfied to retain my title, I've just beaten one of the best boxers the U.S. has to offer and I didn't get hit with anything that gave me any trouble at all.

"He felt quite fragile in there when we were in close. I felt twice as strong as him and he didn't really have any physical presence. I think he felt my strength in there too and that's why he was so negative and tried to disrupt the rhythm of the fight."