By Scott Gilfoid: IBF super middleweight champion Carl Froch’s grand 3-fight plan for 2013 is already coming apart at the seams after a short phone conversation Froch had with his former conqueror Mikkel Kessler where the Dane didn’t sound all that enthused about being a part of Froch’s vision thing for 2013 when asked if he was still planning on fight him.

Froch has a fight this Saturday night against Yusaf Mack in Nottingham, but that’s not part of the three important fights that Froch is dreaming of for next year. Froch wants to fight Lucian Bute, Mikkel Kessler and Andre Ward in that order and he thinks he can beat all three. I think Froch’s chances of beating even one of them are fairly remote given how talented some of them are.

Froch said to thesun.co.uk “I spoke to Kessler on the phone recently and I said ‘Let’s get this fight on. But he gave me short and sweet answers and then changed the subject and asked me how my mum was! He sounded like a man who doesn’t want to fight and he certainly wasn’t saying, ‘Let’s do it in the summer’.”

I wonder if Froch is reading too much into his conversation with Kessler? Froch seems to be mind reading and jumping to conclusions about what Kessler’s thoughts are. It could be that Kessler just wanted to have a light conversation with Froch and wasn’t ready for him to start talking business at that time. Kessler might also have seen Froch as too needy and was turned off. Who knows? It is kind of off putting when you’re expecting just an easy conversation and someone is drilling you on business junk. Froch should have backed off and kept it light.

But if Kessler truly isn’t interested in the fight with Froch then that’s the way it goes sometimes, I guess. Kessler’s a popular guy right now and he’s got a line forming of top fighters that want to fight him. Why would Kessler want to take his career backwards to fight a guy he already whipped previously? Kessler already beat Froch in 2010 by a 12 round decision, so why beat him again when there are plenty of guys out there that Kessler hasn’t fought before? Kessler has a fight next month against Brian Magee for the WBA super middleweight title.

If Kessler wins that fight there’s a big money unification bout against WBO 168 pound champion Arthur Abraham that will be offered to him. I think Abraham is the much better fight than Kessler wasting his time fighting a guy that he already beat before in Froch.