By Scott Gilfoid: IBF/WBA super middleweight champion Carl Froch says he wants to face former WBC middleweight champion Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. or WBA super middleweight champion Andre Ward next rather than facing George Groves again, as he sees those fights as much more interesting than for him to face Groves again. Froch feels that he conclusively beat Groves, even if boxing fans disagree with the stoppage. Froch cares that the referee Howard John Foster felt Groves was hurt enough to halt the bout, and that’s enough for Froch to move on with his victory.
Froch said to the BBC “Andre Ward is on my hit list. There’s also a guy in America [Mexico] called Julio Cesar Chavez [Jr.] who’s a great fighter. As much as the fans want to see it [Groves] real a natural conclusion against George Groves, with me knocking him out again, I feel personally I gave him his chance and he blew it. He can’t cut it at world level.”
So there it is. Froch is moving on whether fans want to see him fight Groves or not. Sounds good, eh? I’m not surprised because I never thought Froch would give Groves a rematch from the very start. Why would Froch break his tradition of not giving rematches? He didn’t give Andre Dirrell a rematch after beating him by in an even more controversial fight, so why should Froch change his stripes and all of a sudden give Groves a rematch after beating him by a controversial stoppage. It really doesn’t matter. The boxing fans saw what happened in that fight, and they’ve basically ignored Froch’s victory and see it as a tainted question mark. If that’s good enough for Froch, then that’s on him.
I think Froch might have problems getting a fight against Chavez Jr. in 2014. It’s not easy to set up fights against Chavez Jr. unless his promoter Bob Arum wants it. Arum has probably got a series of opponents he wants Chavez Jr. to fight in 2014, and I doubt he’ll change his plans just so Froch can fight Chavez Jr. Besides that, Chavez Jr. will probably lose his next fight against Brian Vera in early 2014, and that’ll kill any interest in a Froch-Chavez Jr. fight.
One positive that Froch said was “Las Vegas is the fight capital,” so that could be a potential venue for a Ward-Froch rematch, if Froch is serious about wanting to fight Ward again. I don’t think he is, but it’ll be interesting to see if that happens.
If Froch doesn’t fight Ward, Groves or Chavez Jr. in 2014, then his options are pretty slim. I guess Froch could fight James DeGale, but that be a dull fight to watch with DeGale hitting and running for 12 rounds. I don’t see that as a step up from the Froch-Groves fight. In fact, I see it as a big step down because DeGale would be fighting defensively to avoid getting hit and it would turn out to be a real snoozer for 12 rounds.
Groves needs to move on now because Froch has said his thing and he doesn’t want to fight him again. Groves can maybe go after the winner of the fight between WBC super middleweight champion Sakio Bika and Anthony Dirrell.
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