Will Carl Froch Ever Get The Recognition He Deserves?
May 6th, 2009
By Adam Fillingham: After Carl Froch’s defeat of Jermain Taylor on the 25 of April a lot of people have written off the victory due to Taylor being ‘past his best’. Is this true? Or is this just an excuse due to Froch being British? Just look at the fighters that he has as potential opponents:
Lucian Bute:
Mikkel Kessler
Although by most people being ranked number one in the super middleweight division and being the WBA world champion, Mikkel Kessler is slatted by mainly American pundits for not facing the ‘best’ American fighters and staying in Europe. If Froch defeats Kessler (which in my opinion at this moment in time he wouldn’t) he will get the same recognitions as Calzaghe did. None.
Bernard Hopkins
Although Hopkins is by far the biggest name on this list, he is probably the easiest to come up for excuses for. Bernard is 44 years old and is will most likely be slower than he was against Calzaghe. Froch also may not get much recognition as Calzaghe has already beaten him, unless he can be the first man ever to knock Hopkins out. As far as I can see only knocking Hopkins out will do anything for Froch’s legacy to American fans.
Karoly Balzsay
A unification bout with Balzsay could be on the cards. Balzsay though is virtually unknown to most, even hard core boxing fans, and rated the worst champion in the division. Defeating the undefeated in 21 fights Balzsay would do nothing for Froch’s legacy because of this and would make little money in a bout with the Hungarian.
Kelly Pavlik
A name being thrown around a little is WBO/WBC middleweight champion Kelly Pavlik. Pavlik is already being called overrated by a lot of boxing fans and for Froch to beat him would only enhance this statement. Also Pavlik has lost heavily recently to a 43 year old Bernard Hopkins which will also help to take the sting out of a victory.
Jermain Taylor (Rematch)
If Froch was to defeat Taylor again hopefully more convincingly, then I do doubt that he would get much credit for it. Taylor has now been defeated 3 times in his last 4 bouts. This point will crop up if Froch was to defeat him again.
So as far as I can see Froch can’t get any credit for anything he achieves. The only thing I can think of is if he defeats all of the above fighters. This could be on the cards, you never know.
Tags: 13 Responses to “Will Carl Froch Ever Get The Recognition He Deserves?”
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Is that Jean Pascal current Light Heavy Weight Champion of the World you refer too, and Jermaine Taylor – 2 victories over Hopkins…..Those 2 victories have made froch a british boxing great no matter what he does now….
In my honest opinion, Froch is not good enough to beat pretty much everyone on that list with he exception of a few.
He has virtually no defence and he struggled in his previous fights. When he fought against Jean Pascal, he got hit a lot, and judging by his record, Jean isn’t good enough to be on this list. He would probably be knocked out by Pavlik and Kessler and beaten or stopped by most of the rest.
Froch has indeed a very questionable defensive strategy, but with his chin he can afford to allowing other boxers to come foward onto his shots. aylor is not past him prime and looked fantastic on the night, But Froch got the better of him with brute force and waiting late as he said he would. Hes the champion for a reason.
Froch will slap the shit out of Balzay for 12 rounds. Saying that Balzay would be way to scared to fight him.
Bute will gas after the 7th round, which will allow Froch to KO him in the 9th.
Kessler…would probably lose on point, like he did to a Calzaghe who slaps his way through fights.
I agree with Anthony.
Kessler would be my choice. I dont see Froch winning however. Kessler is far more technically gifted and also hard punching. However, I get sick and tired of boxers having to MAKE IT in America. Whatever, Froch will choose what is best for him at 31 and even tho I think he will get caught out against anyone with pace, I wish him all the best and will support him all the way.
Try again please Andy. First you had Taylor schooling Froch for 11 rounds, now 10 rounds. You’re getting warmer but are still miles off.
Froch was schooled for the first 3 rounds, but that’s it. After steadying the ship a bit in rounds 4 and 5, Froch actually started to clawback the deficit from round 6 onwards. Infact, if you split the fight into 2 halves, Froch won the 2nd half… that’s without the 12th round knockdown and TKO because he’d have won round 12 on the scorecards without them. Admittedly Taylor won the first half of the fight by a wider margin, (hence Froch needed the stoppage), but Froch found the finish so the scorecards don’t matter.
Credit or no credit, you have to take the biggest fights out there. Sometimes credit comes long overdue and when people look back when its all said and done and analyse who could have fought who, if you’ve fought the best and beaten them, then you cannot do more as a boxer. Best thing Froch could do is fight Bute next as a tune up fight for Kessler. I honestly believe he has the beating of Bute. I look back to Bute vs Andrade and Andrade won the match if the referee hadnt give Bute 20 seconds to get up. Watch it on youtube and from when he goes down, forget the refs count, watch the time on the slider. Im not saying it would be easy, but Froch has the chin to stay in with Bute and power to hurt him.
Then Kessler vs Froch. Froch has the chin to stay in with Kessler without being Ko’d. Calzaghe took some hard shots from Kessler and Calzaghe’s chin isn’t as hard as Froch’s. Froch would need to utilise his jab, keep his chin out of reach and look for the openings to hit his right hand on kessler. Its by far not impossible. Tough, but Froch can do it.
Id reject a fight with Hopkins because he is a spoiler. A loss and bad performance to him does as much good as a win and bad performance. Its pointless going down that route in my opinion.
Pavlik would be a good match because it would be entertaining to watch with the chance of a KO likely. At least no-one could complain Froch ducked him.
As for any up and comers like Ward and Dirrell, if i was Froch, I’d say fuck them. Froch had to build his way into contention so let them do it. And if there are bigger fights than defendin his title to them, id say drop the title.
Froch shouldn’t fight Hopkins it is pointless! He should try and aim for one of the Champions Bute, Kessler or Balzay. They would serve him better as then if he won he would hold two titles and be inline for bigger fights.
Forget HOPKINS!!!
maybe if the man the american writers seem to love the most right now “chad dawson” was to come down in weight or froch could reach up, and froch managed to win, wich i’m not saying is a given…. then surely they “americans” could not deny him the recognition he deserves. although i can alredy see the gilfoid headline… FROCH WINS BUT LOOKS LIKE A LOOSER…
He should have more respect than most fighters for his attitude towards fights the only yank who made risky first defences like Froch was Winky Wright
how can u talk about prime in boxing prime aint an age its a state of mind!!! and taylor is very much not in his prime
Jermaine Taylor looked fantastic on the night. He schooled Carl from round 1 to 10.
He was only beaten because of a lack of stamina.
Credit to Carl though for still winning even though he was being dominated for the entire fight.
You know what! Carl froch may not be the slickest boxer around, but so far he has done a job on every opponent he has faced. The result is what counts at the end of the day. And also guys who say taylor was washed up and this and that! He’s younger than froch and in boxing terms is still in his prime. Taylor is a proffessional and i’m sure trained under the best conditions any pro fighter could. The way i see it there are no excuses. Froch was simply the stronger more determined fighter, despite having taken some punches. In fact which fighter does not this is boxing! Some fighters qualities cannot be quantified in physical terms ie..heart,strength and determination. Sometimes these attributes count just as much as physical abilities.