Froch doesn’t think he’ll ever get the recognition he craves

By Scott Gilfoid: Despite capturing the WBC super middleweight title and defending it twice successfully against Americans Jermain Taylor and Andre Dirrell in 2009, Carl Froch (26-0, 20 KO’s) isn’t being given the same recognition of other British boxers like WBA light welterweight champion Amir Khan and WBA heavyweight champion David Haye, both of which have their fights shown on Sky Sports. Froch’s fights are shown on Primetimelive, which he’s happy for, but he would much prefer to have them shown on Sky.

Froch, 32, says in an interview with the Sun, “I don’t think I’ll ever get the recognition from the British media, critics or television. But it’s not something I strive for. I’m not fussed about being famous. I’m well known enough already for it to take me two hours to do my shopping. It’s a shame I’ve not had better exposure on British TV but Showtime [an American cable company] have come to the rescue in American.”

Unfortunately, it doesn’t help Froch a whole lot by Showtime putting his fights on in American while the British TV companies largely ignore Froch’s fights. But in fairness to them, they might be looking into the future and feeling that Froch won’t win the Super Six tournament. It’s a gamble, to be sure. If they don’t show Froch’s fights and he ends up winning the Super Six tourney, they would have missed out on a huge success story for the British fighter. However, if they do show Froch’s fights and he winds up losing to his next Mikkel Kessler this Saturday and then getting beaten again by Arthur Abraham when they meet in August, then it would have been a waste.

From their perspective, it might not pay off if they feel that Froch doesn’t have a very chance of winning the tournament. I don’t think he will win it. I think Froch’s got a lot of heart, but there are too many talented fighters in the Super Six tourney, and Froch hasn’t looked impressive in his last two fights against Jermain Taylor and Andre Dirrell. Kessler, an extraordinary fighter, will be even tougher because he’ll be fighting in front of a huge home audience at the MCH Messecenter Herning, in Herning, Denmark.

This doesn’t look good for Froch. What makes it even worse is that Froch’s style of fighting is the exact type that Kessler has done really well against during his pro career. While Froch says he’s not concerned about being famous, I think he really does want to be famous. If not, then he wouldn’t bother to mention this as often as he does. I don’t blame Froch for not being happy about it, but the British TV networks have to look at fighters that have a good chance at success in the future.

Personally, I think they’re wasting their time with Khan and Haye, because I see both of those fighters as paper champions, ones that will be beaten soon enough once they start facing better fighters, but I think maybe they’re hoping that Haye and Khan will be able to last awhile. They might if they steer clear of certain fighters but once they go up against the best in the division, I see Khan and Haye getting destroyed and beaten back into contender status.

Froch says “I think that beating Andre Dirrell, Jean Pascal and Jermain Taylor should have given me the credit I deserve. But as I’ve said, I don’t crave recognition. I do what I do for the love of the sport and nobody owes me anything.” I think Froch is playing tricks on himself. He does seem to care. Froch should just let it go. By even mentioning it, he’s wasting his time because it’s pointless.

If the British television wants to show his fights, they will. But mentioning it over and over again is beneath Froch. I think that just makes Froch come across as bitter and desperate to the big wigs which make the decisions in British television. Froch should probably consider clamming up and just letting his success speak for him. For me, if I saw someone bellyaching 24/7 about their fights not being shown on television, I wouldn’t be inclined to suddenly start putting their fights on. Actually, I’d probably take a dislike to that person and not want to show any of their fights.

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