By Scott Gilfoid: It looks like Carl Froch’s promoter Eddie Hearn is giving the super middleweight divisions best fighter Andre Ward no choice in the matter of where he has to fight Froch if he wants to face him. Hearn is making it clear that if Ward wants to face Froch again, and I don’t know why he would, it will have to be in the UK or not at all.
Ward isn’t excited about fighting in the UK for obvious reasons. He saw what happened to fellow American Andre Dirrell in 2009 when he fought Froch in the UK and ended up on the receiving end up a highly controversial decision. Ward doesn’t want to put himself in the same situation where he dominated Froch for 12 rounds and ends up losing by a split decision.
Hearn said on his twitter “Cracking up at Ward and Hunter trying to goad Carl Froch into a rematch. Given me another $$$ option for Ward at 168. Nowheretogo.”
I really don’t think Hearn fancies the idea of putting Froch back in with Ward, so of course he’s going to say it has to be in UK. If he knows Ward will say no to it, that’s what he’ll say.
If Hearn really wanted his fighter Froch to fight Ward, he’d be doing whatever he’d agree to whatever the talented American said just to make the fight happen. But it’s pretty clear that Hearn wants Froch to fight Mikkel Kessler again for a third fight next and possibly a fourth fight after that – or at least long as it makes a lot of money.
I can see Hearn putting them back in over and over until he gets diminishing returns in terms of fan interest. I mean, Hearn might mix it Bernard Hopkins in between some of those fights, but now way on earth will he let Froch fight Ward again.
I believe this is all theatrics on Hearn’s part about going through the motions to make it appear that he’s interested in putting Froch back in with Ward. I think he has any interest in making that fight EVER happen again.
Hearn obviously has seen the Froch-Ward fight from 2011 backwards and forwards and he knows Froch doesn’t have the style to ever beat Ward. As such, I just see Hearn going through the motions of acting like he’s trying to put the Froch-Ward fight together, before he says no it and turns his attentions to his real target Kessler.
That’s the guy that will fight Froch next and probably the fight after that as well. I believe Hearn is going to milk the Froch-Kessler fan interest until it’s played out.
I bet if Ward says yes to fighting Froch in the UK, Hearn will come up with something else to derail the fight, like ‘Ward doesn’t fight in an exciting manner’ or ‘Ward doesn’t put backsides in the seats.’ Of course, we all know a Froch-Ward II fight would be huge in the UK, and probably a lot bigger than Froch-Kessler II because pretty much no one on earth would be giving Froch any chance to win the fight. I mean, who in their right mind would pick Froch to beat Ward after seeing how easily a one-handed Ward beat Froch in 2011. For this reason I think it would be a much bigger fight than the Froch vs. Kessler fight because the UK fans would have a lot more reasons to watch the fight.
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