Arum prefers Chavez Jr. to fight Golovkin rather than Carl Froch

By Boxing News - 06/05/2014 - Comments

golovkin5623By Scott Gilfoid: IBF/WBA super middleweight champion Carl Froch (33-2, 24 KO’s) had been think about putting together a plan-B opponent for his next fight later this year because his plan-A opponent Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. could be facing Gennady Golovkin next instead of Froch. That’s what Chavez Jr’s promoter Bob Arum of Top Rank wants.

While he sees Froch as a fighter in with a big fan base in the U.S, he likely realizes that Froch hasn’t put in the effort to build a large fan base in the United State, so he doesn’t have a ton of fans when you look at the casual fans of the sport. As such, Froch’s dream of fighting a pay-per-view fight against Chavez Jr. in the U.S isn’t really a great fight for Chavez Jr. due to Froch’s lack of a fan base in the U.S.

Asking American fans to pay to see Chavez Jr. fight an obscure fighter like Froch would be like Top Rank asking fans to pay to see Chavez Jr. vs. Brian Vera. There’s no way that fight would have done well on PPV, and that’s why Top Rank didn’t even bother. Vera didn’t have the name recognition with casual boxing fans, and neither does Froch.

“Gennady Golovkin will continue to be the first choice assuming he beats [Daniel] Geale, and if Chavez says no to Golovkin, then we’ll look to Froch,” Arum said.

Foch’s recent fight against George Groves did 700,000 viewers on HBO last Saturday night. But Golovkin’s fights bring in huge ratings when he fights on HBO. Golovkin’s fight against Curtis Stevens brought in twice the numbers as the Froch-Groves II fight brought in with HBO. If you do the math, Golovkin comes out way, way, way ahead of Froch in the ratings in the U.S.

If Froch had been fighting in the U.S. or having his fights televised there, then he would likely have bigger ratings. But the reality is that his numbers aren’t big enough to suggest that a fight between him and Chavez Jr. be a PPV fight in the U.S, because it’s not big enough to be a PPV fight. That’s why Arum is doing the smart thing and trying to match Chavez Jr. against the more popular Golovkin than Froch.



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