By Scott Gilfoid: IBF super middleweight champion Carl Froch (30-2, 22 KO’s) says the co-feature bout on his pay per view card this Saturday matching unbeaten super middleweight champion George Groves (18-0, 14 KO’s) vs. Noe Gonzalez (30-2, 22 KO’s) isn’t a good fight. Froch is fighting WBA super middleweight champion Mikkel Kessler (46-2, 35 KO’s) in the main event, but Froch’s promoter Eddie Hearn decided to match Groves up with #11 WBC Noe Gonzalez, a fighter who was knocked out in the 2nd round last year by Adonis Stevenson in April.
The loss didn’t cause the World Boxing Council to drop Gonzalez from their rankings, though. He’s still ranked in their top 15, and that was enough of a reason for Hearn to select for Groves.
Froch said to I Film London “This opponent [Noe Gonzalez], I know Eddie got the opponent, don’t put this out before it goes to Sky Box Office [Froch asking I Film London interviewer Kugan Cassius not to let the comment about Groves’ opponent to go public], because we’re trying to build this opponent as if he’s a decent opponent, but he’s [Groves] fighting another nobody.”
You can’t blame Froch for not being happy with who Eddie Hearn’s dug up for Groves’ opponent because it potentially effects Froch because it’s not a fight that excites a lot of fans, and that in turn can hurt PPV sales.
Hearn is asking the British public to pay 15 pounds to see the fight card. At last you can do is put on a decent co-feature bout instead of what appears to be a mismatch.
When you’ve got a fighter in Noe Gonzalez that was drilled out in the 2nd round last year, what does it tell boxing fans when you match Groves against this guy and put it as the co-feature in a PPV bout. It’s pretty sad that Hearn is asking boxing fans to pay to see a card where the co-feature figures to be a mismatch.
It just looks like Hearn scrimped on putting together a good co-feature bout and that’s disappointing because he could have lured talents like the Dirrell brothers over to the UK to fight Groves if he offered them some decent money. I’m sure they would have taken the fight in a second.
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