By Scott Gilfoid: Well, it looks for former WBC super middleweight champion Carl Froch (28-2, 20 KO’s) is done licking his bruised ego from his loss to American WBA super middleweight champion Andre Ward last December in the Super Six tournament is now ready to get back in the ring on May 5th but not against IBF super middleweight champion Lucian Bute, who Froch and his promoter had been in negotiations with for the past month.

Froch instead is looking to fight either 2nd tier super middleweight Noe Gonzalez Alcoba (28-1, 20 KO’s) or Librado Andrade (30-4, 23 KO’s). Neither of them are particularly appealing. Andrade was at one time a decent fighter who arguably got royally robbed in his first against Bute in 2008. In the rematch, Andrade was stopped in the 4th round in November 2009. Since then, Andrade beat a washed up Eric Lucas, but then lost to Aaron Pryor Jr. by a 10 round majority decision last May. In Andrade’s fight, he defeated Matt O’Brien by a 3rd round TKO last August.

As for the 32-year-old Gonzalez, he holds the WBC Silver super middleweight strap, which doesn’t mean a whole heck of a lot given that Gonzalez has never beaten a 1st tier contender before. He did challenge for the title at middleweight against WBA World middleweight champion Felix Sturm and lost a lopsided 12 round unanimous decision to Sturm in June 2007. I remember that fight clearly and thought to myself then ‘where in the world did Sturm dig this guy up from because he looks terrible.’ Gonzalez is slow, not particularly powerful and looks a lot shorter than his listed 5’11” height. To me he looks no more than 5’9” at best. In watching him fight, he seems more like a club fighter than a world class guy. I think he would be a terrible pick for Froch, but I won’t be surprised if he gets picked.

I’d be okay with Andrade being used as a tune-up but not Gonzalez, no way.

Froch told livefight.com “I don’t want a’gimme’ at this stage of my career even though I’ve earned one. I don’t want some bum who nobody has heard of…They don’t deserve a patsy and I won’t fight one. They’re gonna be top names and / or with a top ranking at 168…Pavlik’s name was kicked about. But it’s possibly Librado Andrade or the WBC number 3, a lad called Noe Gonzalez.”

I think Gonzalez is someone that few people have heard of. I could be wrong but I think only hardcore boxing fans have heard of that guy, so I think Froch needs to come again with that statement and say he might be fighting someone that few boxing fans have heard of because I really don’t think Gonzalez Alcoba’s name rings a bell with casual boxing fans.