Froch wants to fight Andre Ward in the UK, thinks he can beat him there

By Boxing News - 10/18/2012 - Comments

Image: Froch wants to fight Andre Ward in the UK, thinks he can beat him thereBy Scott Gilfoid: Having failed miserably in his previous attempt at trying to beat the talented WBA/WBC super middleweight Andre Ward, IBF super middleweight champion Carl Froch is kicking around the idea of facing Ward a second time, but only in the UK. Froch says he fought Ward once in the USA, and now he wants Ward to return the favor by agreeing to fight him in the UK where Froch lives. And get this, Froch thinks he can beat Ward over there.

Froch said to Sky Sports News “If I can get the fight with Andre Ward it would be a massive fight and that would secure my legacy. I think I can win that fight, I really do, but let’s get it in England. I went over to the USA to fight him, let’s get him over here.”

Sorry, Froch, it doesn’t work that way. Ward already whipped you once, and he’s considered to be the best fighter in the super middleweight division, not you. As such, if you want Ward to try and elevate your legacy, you got to come to Oakland, California and fight him in front of his own loyal Bay Area fans. That’s how it works. I hate to be the one to drizzle on your dream, but it’s not happening.

Froch was easily beaten by Ward last December in the Super Six finals in a 12 round decision loss, and it really wasn’t a competitive fight in the slightest. Ward thrashed Froch with a broken left hand and still made it look easy.

Despite the bold talk from Froch, he doesn’t really sound all that committed to a Ward rematch, saying to Sky Sports News “I think we’d prefer a rematch with [Mikke] Kessler because that’s a fight for the fans and for the television.”

Does that sound like someone that badly wants to fight Ward? Froch is already making excuses for why he might not fight Ward. I think boxing fans want to see Froch avenge the schooling that he got from Ward much more than the schooling he got from Kessler, but that’s me. The Kessler-Froch fight was a lot closer than the Froch-Ward fight, which wasn’t close. Kessler still beat Froch, but you could say that fight was close. Why wouldn’t Froch want to try and fight the guy that really whipped him rather than the fighter that he was competitive with?

My advice for Froch is not to fight Ward all if he’s concerned with his precious legacy. The only thing Ward will do is beat Froch worse in a rematch, and that would really screw things up for Froch with legacy. He’d have to stick around for a few more years to try and make up for the Ward loss, and if he tried to fight him a third time, it would only get worse.

I’m just wondering how a Ward-Froch fight would go if it were to take place in Nottingham. We saw how Froch was able to win a decision against the talented Andre Dirrell while fighting in Nottingham in the Super Six tournament in 2009. Dirrell appeared to easily beat Froch, yet Froch was given the decision in a fight where he appeared to lost 8 rounds. Could the same thing happen with Ward if he were to go to the UK to fight Froch? I don’t know but all we have to go by is the past, and I don’t think Ward is going to want to take a risk that he might get jobbed too like Dirrell.

I hope Froch isn’t counting on Ward agreeing to fight him in the UK, because I think he’s be sadly disappointed when Ward says no to that. Ward saw the Dirrell-Froch fight too, and he and his trainer Virgil Hunter both had Dirrell winning that fight. You think Ward will want to go to the UK, totally dominate Froch from start to finish, and then walk out of the ring a loser? No way, and that’s why that fight won’t happen, at least in the UK.

Instead of trying to map out his future fights, Froch should be worrying about his next opponent Yusaf Mack. If Froch can’t beat Mack on November 17th, then he’s going to look silly afterwards given all his big talk about his rematches against Ward, Mikkel Kessler and Lucian Bute.



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