Chavez Jr vs. Froch in the works for January 24th at MGM Grand, Las Vegas, Nevada

By Boxing News - 07/29/2014 - Comments

chavez012By Scott Gilfoid: A fight between former WBC middleweight champion Julio Cesar Chavez Jr (48-1-1, 32 KOs) and IBF/WBA super middleweight champion Carl Froch (33-2, 24 KOs) is in the works for January 24th at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, Nevada, according to Dan Rafael of ESPN.

If Froch takes the Chavez Jr fight, then he obviously won’t be able to defend his IBF strap against his mandatory challenger James DeGale. Froch would have to vacate the IBF title, because he has until February to defend the strap or else he’ll get it stripped from him by the IBF.

This is still far from a done deal, because Chavez Jr would likely make far better money if he were to face WBC middleweight champion Miguel Cotto in December on HBO pay-per-view. If Chavez Jr can make 160 or get Cotto to agree to a catch-weight in between 160 and 168, which is doubtful, Chavez Jr could fight him for big, big money.

A fight between Chavez Jr and Froch would likely draw only mild interest in the U.S because Froch isn’t a star or even well-known with casual boxing fans. Froch is strictly known only among the hardcore boxing fans in the U.S, which is why it’s not a great fight if you’re Chavez Jr and Top Rank.

If they can get Froch to agree to put half of his UK pay-per-view money in the pot to make the fight worthwhile, it might not be a bad idea for Chavez Jr to fight Froch. But without the UK PPV money, it’s not a fight that is worth it for Chavez Jr to take because the U.S PPV money from a Froch-Chavez Jr fight would likely be in the neighborhood of 100,000 PPV buys. Believe me, that’s not a good number.

“Talks have re-opened with Top Rank regarding a proposed Froch versus Chavez fight with a date of Jan. 24th penciled,” Froch’s promoter Eddie Hearn said to Rafael at ESPN.com today. “Obviously, we have the potential to make another big domestic fight against (mandatory challenger) James DeGale and even a third fight with Mikkel Kessler, but either way we have given ourselves a deadline of 10 days to two weeks to map out Carl’s future.”

This is a bad match-up for Froch because he doesn’t seem to react well when he’s hit hard nowadays, and he’s going to get hit hard frequently by Chavez Jr. Froch doesn’t have an inside game other than tapping his opponents on the side of the head during a clinch. Chavez Jr doesn’t clinch. He fights on the inside and he’s a real headache if he faces guys that have no skills in close.

Andy Lee, a fighter built a lot like Froch, tried to fight Chavez Jr on the inside and he got obliterated in losing by a 7th round TKO two years ago. Lee tried to use movement, but Chavez Jr’s pressure and ability to cut off the ring was eventually too much for him, as he was able to force Lee into exchanging with him. In the 7th round, Lee was trapped against the ropes by Chavez Jr and knocked out.

Chavez Jr’s promoter Bob Arum is on board with this fight. He wants to make it happen. Arum likely smells blood in the water in seeing Froch as a guy that’s tailor-made for a fighter like Chavez Jr. Without inside skills, Froch is going to have major problems against Chavez Jr.

Froch has picked up wins against beatable guys like Lucian Bute, George Groves, and Mikkel Kessler recently. Chavez Jr is a whole different story due to his strong chin, his size and his ability to go to the body. Froch hasn’t ever faced a good body puncher before during his career. I wonder how he’s going to react when instead of his chin being tested, it’s his body that is getting hammered with big shots from Chavez Jr. I think we might see Froch exposed in this fight.



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