By Scott Gilfoid: 37-year-old IBF/WBA super middleweight belt holder Carl Froch (33-2, 24 KOs) will need to wait a little longer than expected for his much desired clash against the inactive former WBC 160 strap holder Julio Cesar Chavez Jr, as Froch has reportedly suffered an elbow injury and he won’t be able to fight anytime soon.
Froch was hoping to face the ring rusty Chavez Jr in Las Vegas, Nevada in early 2015, as Froch is under the impression that it would be a big fight in the U.S. Chavez Jr’s last fight against Brian Vera wasn’t a big fight, and there are major question marks whether Chavez Jr can still pull in fans, given his poor performances against Vera and Sergio Martinez, as well as the infrequency of his fights.
“I will get some treatment and then we will look to make this fight for another big fight in the early summer,” Froch said via theguardian.com. “I’m disappointed to have let this opportunity go but at this stage in my career I have to make every fight count.”
By the time Froch does heal up and return to the ring, he’ll be either 38 or close to 38. Froch turns 38 on July 2nd. He’ll have been out of the ring for an entire year when he returns this summer.
What’s interesting is that Froch talks about making every fight count yet by him staying inactive from May of 2014, when he defeated George Groves for the second time, Froch has basically missed out on two entire fights if he had stayed active and fought every 4 months like some top fighters do. I mean, if you’re going to make every fight count then shouldn’t you look to get in fights as frequently as possible? Just sitting around and on resting on your laurels while taking about wanting to fight a guy [Chavez Jr] who is really no longer relevant in the eyes of a lot of boxing fans seems rather self-defeating if you ask me.
Froch could have stayed busy by fighting the likes of Sergey Kovalev, Adonis Stevenson, Jean Pascal, the Dirrell brothers, James DeGale, Arthur Abraham and Andre Ward in the last eight months and slipped in at least two paydays. Froch could have made millions for those two fights during the last eight months. To me, that’s making every fight count and using your time wisely.
In the case of Froch, I see it as poor planning by him not utilizing the time that he fighting frequently and against the best fighters, not against guys who haven’t fought in close to a year like Chavez Jr. I mean, the last time Chavez Jr fought was last year in March against a journeyman middleweight in Brian Vera. What is Chavez Jr doing fighting Vera twice in a row, and why is he sitting out of the ring for an entire year.
I’m not surprised by Froch’s injury. When you get a guy that’s not doing anything by staying active in the ring, injuries are going to start popping up. Would this elbow injury have happened if Froch had stayed active in the last eight months instead of sitting on his backside talking about only wanting to fight Chavez Jr, I don’t know. But I’d like to think Froch would have stayed sharp and done a heck of a lot better time in maximizing his time and the money he could have made if he’d stayed busy.
“We were almost ready to go,” Froch’s promoter Eddie Hearn said about the Chavez Jr fight. “We will have a meeting early next week and plan out 2015. I’m confident we will see him back in the ring this summer.”
Hearn needs to convince Froch to stop sitting around on his duff and start fighting. He needs to let go of his preoccupation with the Chavez Jr fight and just stay busy, period.
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