By Scott Gilfoid: IBF/WBA super middleweight champion Carl Froch (33-2, 24 KOs) says he’s confident that his promoter Eddie Hearn will be making an announcement for a fight against the ring rusty former WBC middleweight champion Julio Cesar Chavez Jr (48-1-1, 32 KOs) real soon for a fight that could take place in March in Las Vegas, Nevada.
Froch didn’t say anything about Chavez Jr’s existing promoter Bob Arum, who said that there isn’t going to be a fight between them.
Hearn appears to be willing to put the fight together despite what Arum is saying, which should make for an interesting situation later if the fight winds up getting shutdown before it can take place.
“We’re nearly there, dare I say it, with the Chavez fight in Vegas which I’ve talked about since knocking out Groves,” Froch said to Skysports.com. “I’m very optimistic that Eddie Hearn will be making an announcement very soon. That’s the fight that takes me to Las Vegas. Chavez is a great fighter.”
I don’t know about Chavez Jr being a great fighter like Froch says. I think it’s reasonable to conclude that Chavez Jr is a decent fighter, but hardly a great one. I mean, he looked horrible in his last two fights against a much lighter Brian Vera, who he dragged up from the middleweight division to fight at super middleweight instead of looking to face a real 168 pound fighter. And of course Chavez Jr looked worse than horrible in his fight against a past his prime Sergio Martinez in 2012.
That was really the last time that Chavez Jr fought a good fighter, because he’s only fought Vera since then. Froch is basically looking to fight a guy who hasn’t fought a live body since 2012. Before being humbled by Martinez, Chavez Jr had built up a resume based on little more than fluff wins over weak opposition. His best wins have come against Andy Lee, John Duddy, and Marco Antonio Rubio. Those aren’t great fighters, are they?
The Froch-Chavez Jr fight will bring in good pay-per-view numbers in the UK, but that’s about it. There’s no way a Chavez Jr vs. Froch fight does well on pay-per-view in the United States because Froch is an unknown for the casual boxing fans, and Chavez Jr has dropped off the boxing map after his loss to Martinez in 2012. He’s not relevant any longer and has never fought an actual super middleweight.
Froch could get pretty much the same U.S pay-per-view numbers if he faced almost anyone, because it’s not a fight that will sell at all on PPV.
If Chavez Jr is able to attack Froch’s body, then I can definitely see him scoring a knockout victory. Froch has never fought anyone that throws body punches, so this would be a first for him.
Chavez Jr is also an excellent inside fighter. We saw what happened to Froch when he fought Andre Ward in the Super Six tournament. Ward took the fight to the inside and smothered Froch’s offense for the full 12 rounds. All Chavez Jr needs to do is use Ward’s blueprint in how to beat Froch, and he’ll do the same thing.
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