Carl Froch looks to make Mikkel Kessler quit on his stool

Carl Froch has sworn he will exact revenge on Mikkel Kessler when they meet for a second time at London's O2 Arena on Saturday.

Froch, 35, defends his IBF super-middleweight title against Kessler, having lost to the Dane in 2010.

Nottingham-born Froch weighed 167lb 9oz at Friday's weigh-in, while Kessler was 166lb 7oz, a pound and a half under the super-middleweight limit.

"I'll get him out of there late on or make him quit on his stool," he said.

"I just can't see him staying with me. I'm a totally different fighter to what I was three years ago.

"It was miserable - I was no longer champion, I was devastated. But I picked myself up and dusted myself down and now I'm on the crest of a wave.

"I can't let Mikkel Kessler get away with doing what he did to me three years ago. I just can't let that happen."

Froch and 33-year-old Dane Kessler were said to be close but the Englishman strayed from the script when he threatened to kill his opponent on Wednesday.

The Englishman has since apologised for his statement and while there was plenty of conversation during the weigh-in stare-down the protagonists shook hands.

But Froch, who was roared onto the scales by about 500 fans, remains supremely confident he will have too much for Kessler, who beat him on points in Copenhagen three years ago.

"I'm not middle-aged yet, I'm at my peak, at the top of the hill," Froch told BBC Sport.

"In the first fight there were a few things that went wrong and that's why the fight was so close and so brutal, because I wasn't able to do what I normally do.

"I was getting hit with the right hand to the body because I was stood flat-footed in front of him, letting him punch, rather than being on my toes.

"I know what I did wrong and we've put it right. I'm hitting targets, smashing records, feeling full of energy and feeling strong."

Kessler is one of only two men to have beaten Froch - the other was American Andre Ward in 2011 - but has fought only 13 rounds in three years.

However, Froch's trainer Rob McCracken disagrees with the consensus that Kessler is over the hill, at least in public.

"Kessler is a big threat, he's shown no signs of slipping," said McCracken, who has been in Froch's corner since he turned professional in 2002.

"We keep hearing he's not what he was but he's only lost to Ward and Joe Calzaghe [Welshman Calzaghe outpointed Kessler in 2007] and he's looked great in his last couple of fights."

Meanwhile, Kessler believes Froch's threat to kill him at the final news conference on Wednesday suggested he was suffering from nerves.

"He's under pressure and can make some big mistakes," said Kessler, who holds the fringe WBA 'world' super-middleweight crown (Ward is the WBA's 'super world' champion).

"Especially if he's going to be a bit too aggressive and come early in the opening rounds.

"So I will look forward to that. I think he's going to come out looking for me and that the crowd will make him fight that way."

Kessler, whose mother is English by birth and who has an English half-brother, expects to have 1,000 supporters among the 20,000 capacity at the O2.