By Scott Gilfoid: IBF/WBA super middleweight champion Carl Froch’s promoter Eddie Hearn has ruled out completely any chance of there being a Froch vs. Gennady Golovkin fight in the near future. Hearn says it’s because it’s a dangerous fight for Froch and that it wouldn’t be a fight that HBO would televise on pay-per-view.
Hearn believes that there’s a chance that Froch could fight Golovkin in the future, but he’s not giving any timeline when or if that’s going to happen. Hearn wants the fight to be pay-per-view on HBO for some reason.
It’s hard to understand why he could care about that given that a Froch-Golovkin fight could make huge money on Sky Box office and it would do really well if Hearn would stick the fight at Wembley Stadium like he did Froch’s recent fight against George Groves last May. Golovkin would likely have no qualms about traveling to London to fight Froch in front of his own fans.
Hearn using the Froch-Golovkin fight as not being worthy of HBO PPV sounds like an excuse that can be used to steer Froch in another direction away from what would be a very, very dangerous fight for Froch. There’s no way that Froch-Golovkin will ever be an HBO pay-per-view worthy fight because Froch’s just not done what’s required for him to become a star in the U.S. To become a star in the U.S, you have to look good in your fights. Froch hasn’t done that in many of his fights that American fans have seen. In his fights against Andre Dirrell and Andre Ward, Froch looked horrible in losing both of them. He got a win over Dirrell but it was very controversial to the point where many fans have labeled it as a hometown decision for Froch.
I hate to be the one to break this to Hearn, but Froch vs. Julio Cesar Chavez Jr isn’t an HBO pay-per-view fight either. No way is that a PPV fight in the U.S. If HBO makes a Froch-Chavez Jr fight, they’re going to end up sadly disappointed with next to no fans purchasing it, because Froch doesn’t have the cache in the U.S for that fight to be a big deal. Now a fight between Golovkin and Chavez Jr is definitely an HBO pay-per-view worthy fight, because Golovkin fights in the U.S and he looks good every time. He’s not getting knocked down, looking sloppy, and winning controversial decisions. He’s not fighting novices with next to no pro experience against quality opposition either.
“When I tell you Froch-Golovkin is not HBO pay-per-view, it’s not my opinion, it’s what we’ve been told,” Hearn said to IFL TV. “It fact. I think I know better and it’s not. So Froch-Chavez is [pay-per-view]. Froch has made comments about staying away from Golovkin. It’s a very dangerous fight. If the money’s right, you know Froch’s going to take it. He’s made a career out of fighting everybody and anyone. I think it’s a great fight. I don’t think it’s going to happen, but in time, who knows? The immediate future is Carl-Chavez fight. Talks have reignited for that fight.”
At 37, the chances of Froch facing Golovkin in the future are slim and none. Froch’s too old to wait much longer for the fight to happen, and he’s not going to increase his popularity in the United States given that he’s not fighting there. Look at Golovkin. He’s been fighting steadily in the U.S since 2010, and it’s only now that he’s finally picking up fans.
Froch isn’t going to be able to increase his popularity enough in the future to fight Golovkin on HBO pay-per-view, if Hearn continues to use that as the excuse for not matching Froch against Golovkin. HBO will pick up some of Froch’s fights when he faces quality guys, but they’re probably not going to show enough of his fights for him to pick up enough fans for him to be popular enough to fight Golovkin on pay-per-view.
Froch looked horrible in the first Groves fight, and he looked even worse in his rematch against Mikkel Kessler last year. The U.S fans that saw that fight were underwhelmed judging by many of the comments made by fans in internet forums.
Hearn says he plans on matching Froch against James DeGale next, and after that he says Chavez Jr and Kessler are options for Froch. Chavez Jr and Kessler are relatively safe fights for Froch, so Hearn is basically steering Froch towards safer waters.
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