What does the future hold for Froch?

By Boxing News - 05/31/2012 - Comments

Image: What does the future hold for Froch?By Gareth Rees: On Saturday we witnessed one of the all-time great performances by a British boxer. Despite some people seemingly crawling from underneath a rock to say Lucian Bute has never been that good and this doesn’t prove anything, this was the just desserts for a true warrior in Carl Froch.

For a long time Froch was the most undervalued fighter in not only the UK but possibly the world for the last 5 years. This is a man who over the past few years has had one of toughest set of consecutive fights not seen for many a year. In a time where the top fighters seem to avoid each other because of arguments over money, drug testing, rematch clauses and place of the fight. Froch brings back the old school mind-set of I will fight anyone, anywhere, anytime which is refreshing as it is the opposite to many others(mayweather-pacquiao anyone) and for this he must be applauded. How he hasn’t had the spotlight on him for years is beyond me, he is constantly in exciting fights against quality opponents, so this new found media attention is very well deserved.

During the fight I got the feeling Bute seriously underestimated Froch like many before him, he didn’t respect Froch’s power and constant waves of attack. What has most impressed me about Froch, which both he and his trainer Rob McCracken should take credit for, is the constant development of his style. On Saturday like in the Abraham fight his jab was immense and totally surprised Bute. Once Bute had felt Froch’s power and had realised his shots didn’t affect his iron chin, Bute’s heart seemed to go. Many quite rightly will question Bute’s chin and I feel its going to take at least a year for him to get over this defeat mentally. I think Bute should face someone like Dirrell next, as he hasn’t got a lot of power but is still a high level opponent, who he would be seen as favourite against. How he reacts to this loss will say a lot about his character and what type of career he will have.

I can’t see Bute wanting a rematch anytime soon and it will be interesting what Froch does next. Rumours are he will have rematch with Mikkel Kessler possibly at Light Heavyweight, Kessler has said he is happy to fight Froch in Nottingham in what I think will be another awesome fight. If and this is a big ‘IF’, Froch manages to beat Kessler at Light Heavy there will be a lot of options open to him. I think and hope he would then face the winner of the Natha Cleverly – Tony Bellew rematch, as this would give him a chance at another World Title in a second weight class, whilst allowing the two young fighters to as they say ‘take the torch’ from him. This would be a great all British fight with high rewards for both camps as Cleverly/Bellew will have the chance to put a major scalp on their resume. Whereas for Froch it would enhance his legacy as well open up chances for big money fights including a rematch against Jean Pascal, or title fights against guys like Tavoris Cloud and Chad Dawson before retiring.

Froch has spoken more and more about retiring now he has a child with his long-time partner Rachael Cordingley and I feel next time he loses he will retire. I do hope he strings a few more wins together before retiring, so he can without argument be put in the same category as the likes of Joe Calzaghe as one of the greatest British fighters of all time.



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