By Scott Gilfoid: Despite Carl Froch pulling out of negotiations with former WBC middleweight champion Julio Cesar Chavez Jr for a fight that was supposed to take place on March 28th in Las Vegas, Chavez Jr is still very much interested in resuming negotiations with the soon to be 38-year-old Froch for a fight that could take place later this year.
Chavez Jr has already scheduled a replacement opponent in Andrzek Fonfara to face on April 18th in a fight that will happen in either Vegas or Los Angeles. The 6’2” upright Fonfara is a very similar fighter to Froch only that he’s a light heavyweight rather than super middleweight like Froch.
Chavez Jr seems to more interested in plodder type fighters right now rather than the clever guys that he’ll need to prove that he can beat if he wants to be the best at 168. But it’s also possible that Chavez Jr is going to try and pick up a title against a softer champion like WBO super middleweight champion Arthur Abraham, and the hole up with that organization and face the largely mediocre opposition that the WBO ranks highly.
If Chavez Jr could pick up the WBO belt against the stationary Abraham, he could possibly hold onto the WBO belt for 2-3 years, given mediocre contenders the WBO has been ranking highly during the last few years. Look at how Abraham and Robert Stieglitz have been able to swap the WBO back and forth for the past three years. Chavez Jr can definitely get into the action and do the same.
“It [the Fonfara fight] is a very good fight. Hopefully we win and then go for the super middleweight title against Froch,” Chavez Jr said via ESPN Deportes. “Fonfara is a known fighter, people know he has power, and that is good, but we will train very hard to give people the fight that they expect of me and then we can go for Froch.”
The big question is why Chavez Jr isn’t going for the best at 168 like Andre Ward or the Dirrell brothers. Why isn’t Chavez Jr looking to fight Gennady Golovkin or Saul “Canelo” Alvarez? Those are bigger fights than Froch. Golovkin is a much better known fighter in the U.S than Froch, and it’s a fight that would actually interest the casual boxing fans.
Froch vs. Chavez Jr likely wouldn’t even sellout a small arena in Las Vegas, and the ratings on HBO will likely be worse than Chavez Jr’s fight against journeyman Brian Vera. I think it’s a dumb decision by Chavez Jr to fight Froch unless he can get some of the UK pay-per-view money to make it worthwhile, because if they have this televised on U.S pay-per-view, I don’t see it even selling 100,000 pay-per-view buys.
There’s no market for a Froch-Chavez Jr fight in the United States as far as I can tell. You can’t sell a fight between a guy who hasn’t been active in the last three years and who was badly exposed by a nearly 40-year-old Sergio Martinez and an unknown like Froch in the U.S. Froch vs. Chavez Jr is the equivalent of Chavez Jr vs. Fonfara, I hate to say. If Chavez Jr tries selling his fight against Fonfara on April 18th, he’s going to be sadly disappointed with the PPV numbers, because Fonfara is an unknown in the U.S outside of small parts of the east coast. The Froch-Chavez Jr fight will be an identical fight. Yeah, the hardcore fans will have some interest, but the fight will need casual boxing fans to purchase it for it to be a success and I don’t see that happening.
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