By Scott Gilfoid: Matchroom Sport promoter Eddie Hearn believes a victory for his fighter IBF super middleweight champion Carl Froch (30-2, 22 KO’s) over WBA super middleweight champion Mikkel Kessler (46-2, 35 KO’s) on May 25th will greatly enhance Froch’s legacy among British boxers. Hearn also sees the 35-year-old Froch as an all-time great.
Hearn said to Sky Sports News “He can now avenge that loss and leave a real legacy for British boxing because I believe he’s one of the all-time greats and a win against Kessler will put him right up there.”
I don’t throw around all-time great to just anyway, and for that reason I can’t Froch in the category of an all-time great. If Hearn is just talking about Froch being one of the best British fighters, then I’m okay with that because that seems like a more realistic achievement, but not an all-time great in terms of world-wide all-time greats.
I don’t see Froch in that category because his resume is too thin in terms of beating the best guys. Froch lost to Kessler, Andre Ward, and has a questionable decision at home in Nottingham over Andre Dirrell, and barely escaped a loss to Jermain Taylor. To me, that’s not an all-time great.
Here’s what Froch will have to do in order for him to be an all-time great in my book: He’ll have to beat the following fighters for me to consider him in that category:
Andre Dirrell – in a neutral venue and without controversy like last time
Andre Ward
Lucian Bute – in Montreal
Adonis Stevenson
Mikkel Kessler – without controversy
Sergio Martinez
Peter Quillin
Thomas Oosthuizen
Gennady Golovkin
Julio Cesar Chavez Jr
Chad Dawson
If Froch can run the table on all of these guys in beating them, then I see him an all-time great, but until then I just see him one of the three paper champions at 168. The only real champion I see in the super middleweight division is Andre Ward.
Froch and Kessler will be fighting at the O2 Arena (Millenium Dome), Greenwich, London, United Kingdom.
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