By Scott Gilfoid: Well, it looks like the International Boxing Federation will be letting IBF super middleweight champion Carl Froch maneuver around his IBF mandatory challenger Adonis Stevenson so that Froch can fight a unification bout against WBC super middleweight champion Mikkel Kessler next.
A spokesman for the IBF told eastsideboxing.com “Adonis will have to step aside and wait until the unification bout between WBA title holder Mikkel Kessler and the incumbent IBF champ [Froch] takes place.”
That’s so sad. Stevenson gets bypassed so that Froch can fight an arguably less dangerous fight against Kessler instead the blazing fast and powerful Stevenson.
The unfortunate thing about this is that Froch could end up bypassing Stevenson a second time if Froch can get past Kessler, because Froch wants to fight WBA/WBC super middleweight champion Andre Ward. I suppose we could see Froch getting another free pass to go around Stevenson. The IBF has to have some kind of limits for this kind of thing because being able to fight guys over and over again in unification bouts is a bad thing if you’re a the mandatory challenger who keeps getting passed up each time.
It was thought that Froch would have to vacate the IBF title or have it stripped from him if he refused to defend the title against Stevenson. I never expected Froch to face Stevenson, so I was waiting for his promoter Eddie Hearn to signal that Froch is giving up the IBF strap. But now with the IBF letting Froch go around Stevenson, it means he won’t have vacate his title and can fight Kessler next in their unification bout.
I guess Stevenson will just have to keep busy until Froch gets done with all of his unification bouts. It might just be that one fight because I see Kessler beating Froch, and that’ll put the onus on Kessler to fight Stevenson. That still doesn’t mean he will fight him, because I see Kessler then fighting a unification bout or two against WBO champ Arthur Abraham and then Ward, while Stevenson sits and waits.
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