Hearn working on Chavez Jr-Froch fight for end of 2014

By Boxing News - 06/10/2014 - Comments

chavez5By Scott Gilfoid: Promoter Eddie Hearn is working with Top Rank to try and put together the fight that IBF/WBA super middleweight champion Carl Froch wants against Julio Cesar Chavez Jr for the end of the year in either November or December. The fight, if it gets put together, will be staged in Las Vegas, Nevada, and it would be on HBO pay-per-view.

It would be a big stretch for Top Rank to make a fight between Froch and Chavez Jr a PPV fight in the U.S, because Froch arguably no more popular in America than Chavez Jr’s last opponent Brian Vera. You can make an argument that Froch isn’t even as popular as Vera, because he doesn’t have a large pool of fans to count on to purchase a fight between him and Chavez Jr on PPV in the U.S. Froch’s British fans would scoop up a fight between him and Chavez Jr on Sky Box Office, but these won’t be able to help out with the much more important PPV buys in America.

Besides Chavez Jr, Hearn has Mikel Kessler as a plan-B if Chavez Jr doesn’t say yes to the fight with Froch, and then plan-C being James DeGale. Since Hearn is talking about Froch absolutely wanting the fight to take place in Las Vegas, it would seem that Kessler and DeGale would be very, very poor choices for opponents for Froch if the fight takes place in that city.

A Froch-DeGale or Froch-Kessler fight wouldn’t likely draw flies in U.S, and it definitely wouldn’t be shown on PPV in the U.S, because who’d want to pay for that? Casual boxing fans have no idea who any of these guys are. They wouldn’t even know who Froch is for the most part.

“There are three realistic options – Mikkel Kessler III, James DeGale and Julio Cesar Chavez Jnr,” Hearn said to the Dailymail.co.uk. “We will start talks and see what can be done and what is possible. I would like to look at the end of November or December in Vegas. The fight in Vegas is what he really wants to do. If the right offer doesn’t come up then I am quite confident he will hang up his gloves.”

So let me get this right. If Froch doesn’t get his Las Vegas fight, he’s going to retire? Oh boy, this is bad. I mean, Froch can certainly fight in Vegas, but the issue here is I don’t see being a PPV fight unless Chavez Jr is involved and then it’s not really a PPV worthy fight. It’s only PPV worthy if Chavez Jr is fighting someone who the U.S casual boxing fans are familiar with, such as Gennady Golovkin and Andre Ward.

Bob Arum of Top Rank wants to match Chavez Jr against Golovkin. In fact, that’s who he reportedly prefers for Chavez Jr’s next fight. It’s not that Froch isn’t a popular fighter in the UK; it’s just that he’s highly popular in America, and Arum is better off making the Golovkin-Chavez Jr fight than Chavez Jr-Froch. Arum is a smart businessman and he knows what the American public wants to see.



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