By Scott Gilfoid: IBF super middleweight champion Carl Froch (30-2, 22 KO’s) wasn’t pleased at hearing the news that WBO light heavyweight champion Nathan Cleverly and unbeaten British super middleweight contender George Groves both helped out WBA super middleweight champion Mikkel Kessler with sparring to get him ready for his fight with Froch this Saturday night at the O2 Arena in London, UK.
Froch said to the telegraph.co.uk “They’d rather go out there and help a foreign fighter prepare for the biggest fight of my career…the fact that Groves – and I think Nathan Cleverly – has gone out there to help him, sums up what they are: they are quite bitter and jealous and they want to fight with me, but it’s not happening because I’m a league above them.”
This is hilarious. Froch is dumping on Groves and Cleverly just because they wanted to get a little sparring money and experience. Doesn’t Froch know that boxing is global now? This isn’t some kind of battle grounds where each side loads up for war. Man, I just hope Froch doesn’t use this later an excuse for why he got beat by Kessler because I can just hear the excuses about Froch losing his cool after learning about the disloyalty Groves & Cleverly showed.
I don’t blame Groves and Cleverly one bit. The experience they got with the valuable sparring with Kessler might improve them as fighters. I think it was a smart move on their part in choosing to spar with Kessler.
I’m sure if they had the opportunity to spar with American talents Andre Dirrell, Anthony Dirrell and Andre Ward, they would jump at the chance. Kessler made it easy for them, so he got a couple of good sparring partners for this camp.
Froch doesn’t see the sparring as helping Kessler, though, as he fees that neither Cleverly or Groves can mimic his fighting style. I kind of agree with Froch on that.
Those guys aren’t like Froch at all, but it depends on how well they aped Froch’s style. If they followed instructions well from Kessler’s trainer then they might have been able to Froch’s drooping arm fighting style. Cleverly already fights like that, but he looks a shade more skilled than Froch and a little bigger than him. Groves is faster than Froch, and he uses too many head feints.
It is kind of sad that Froch won’t fight Cleverly and Groves. I don’t understand that. When Froch was younger, he was unhappy that better known Joe Calzaghe never chose to give him a shot at his titles. Now, Froch is doing pretty much the same thing Calzaghe did by ignoring Cleverly and Groves’ attempts at getting a fight with him. I think I smell fear. Froch must be afraid of the potential of him losing or looking bad in winning. He’d lose a lot of credibility with his British boxing fans if he got beaten by either of those guys, and if he has to struggle to beat them, that could hurt him as well.
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