Froch disses Ward, says he doesn’t entertain people

By Boxing News - 05/26/2013 - Comments

froch2000By Scott Gilfoid: Last night, IBF super middleweight champion Carl Froch sounded like he was coming up with an excuse for why he doesn’t want to ever fight Andre Ward again when Froch was being interviewed by HBO’s Max Kellerman following Froch’s 12 round unanimous decision win over Mikkel Kessler.

Froch said Ward has a fighting style that’s not entertaining and that the television companies are excited by his style. However, in the end of the interview Froch finally said he’s interested in fighting Ward – if he comes to the UK to fight him.

I wish Froch a lot of luck in trying to accomplish that, but that’s definitely a good way of Froch killing the fight with Ward by saying it has to be in the UK or not at all.

Froch said to Kellerman: “That’s the other target [Ward]. I’ve had 33 fights in my career. I’ve only lost twice. One of the losses was to Mikkel Kessler and I’ve set the record straight. I don’t know if I should set them up for a third one or move on to try and avenge the other defeat on my record, which is obviously Andre Ward. He’s a tough one. I’ve always said I’d like to fight Andre Ward. He’s very good at what he does, but he’s not an entertaining fighter. His style isn’t one that you want to watch and watch. That’s the only stick I give him, but he’s effective at what he does. He knows how to win but he’s not a fighter’s fighter. He’s not a brawler, he doesn’t get the crowd out of their seats, he doesn’t seem to get the television companies excited. He’s the only other guy to beat me, so that’s the fight out there that I know I can win, but I can beat him if I get it right. So let’s get him over to the United Kingdom and get the fight on next up if he wants it.”

It almost seems like Froch started out with the intention of telling Kellerman that he won’t fight Ward, but he then changed his mind during his long monologue and decided to fight Ward. Maybe it was the pressure of having Kellerman stare him down while he was talking. Froch probably read Kellerman’s eyes and guessed what he was thinking, which was probably along the lines of ‘Man, is Froch chickening out from a fight with Ward? I can’t believe it. Look at him. He’s making excuses, how sad.’

Whatever the case, I expect Froch’s promoter to push really hard for the Kessler rematch and that’s the fight I see Froch taking, not Ward. The fact that Froch was so indecisive during the interview tells me that he’ll be putty in the fingers of Hearn when he starts leaning on him to get him to take the Kessler fight next and not the Ward fight.

Hearn gave an interview after the fight last night and he made it crystal clear that he likes the idea of Froch fighting Kessler in a third fight next and not the Ward fight. Hearn also likes the idea of Froch fighting Bernard Hopkins and George Groves. In order, Hearn was the most excited by the Kessler-Froch III fight, then Hopkins and finally the Groves fight. Hearn wasn’t excited at all about Froch fighting Ward as I said, so that’s a fight that won’t ever get done.



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