By Scott Gilfoid: This past week 50-year-old Bernard Hopkins (55-7-2, 32 KOs) expressed interest in moving down to super middleweight to face IBF/WBA 168lb champion Carl Froch (33-2, 24 KOs) in a fight that would have made big waves in both the UK and the United States. Unfortunately, Froch says he’s not interested in facing Hopkins or Gennady Golovkin and “is prepared to wait” for the Julio Chavez Jr bout, according to the Telegraph.co.uk.
Chavez Jr tentatively is scheduled for a fight on April 18th against light heavyweight Andrzej Fonfara.
“I’m not really interested. I’m prepared to wait until (I’m fit again) and I’ll face Chavez in Las Vegas in June,” Froch said via the Telegraph.
Some boxing fans have the perception that Froch is afraid of fighting Golokvin, and that’s why he’s targeting a fighter from yesterday in Chavez Jr. But with Froch now not interested in facing Hopkins too, it’s going to have fans wondering whether Froch is afraid of him as well. Hopkins does have the same smothering type of fighting skills as Andre Ward, and we saw what Ward did to Froch in their fight in 2011.
It looks like Froch is counting on Chavez Jr being able to come back quickly from his April 18th fight to be back in the ring only two months later in June. That sounds like a pipe dream on Froch’s part. Chavez Jr won’t come back from his next fight against Fonfara in just two months.
Instead of taking on Golovkin and/or Hopkins in lucrative bouts on pay-per-view, Froch is stubbornly sticking with his dream of fighting Chavez Jr in Las Vegas, Nevada. You have to wonder why Froch wouldn’t want to fight Golovkin or Hopkins.
If Chavez Jr isn’t going to be available until the end of the year, and not in the summer like Froch thinks, then why isn’t Froch willing to stay busy? Does he not like his chances against Golovkin or Hopkins? Why would Froch not want to slip in another payday against one of those fighters? It just makes you wonder because it’s arguably a bad business move to skip fights in order to wait on one that has a chance of not happening at all.
Let’s say Arum blocks all of Chavez Jr’s attempts at fighting outside of his Top Rank contract in 2015, then what happens with Froch? If Chavez Jr isn’t going to fulfill his final contract with Bob Arum’s company, then this thing could drag out into 2016 with Chavez Jr not fighting. I mean, he already has been out of the ring for almost an entire year. If Froch waits for Chavez Jr all of 2015, then he could have nothing to show for it at the end of the year. It’s a risky gamble for Froch to be waiting on Chavez Jr.
They’re talking about that fight being a catch-weight bout at 172 pounds. However, it remains to be seen whether Chavez Jr will be able to take that fight, because his promoter Bob Arum of Top Rank is talking about having that fight blocked by him taking legal action due to him claiming that Chavez Jr still owes Top Rank one more fight on their contract. If Chavez Jr is blocked from taking that fight, then it remains to be seen whether Froch will be able to get a fight against him in the summer.
Even if Chavez Jr is able to legally fight Fonfara, we’re still looking at possibly September before he could face Froch. Chavez Jr would have to return to the ring four months after the Fonfara fight in order to face Froch in the summer, and I don’t have much faith in Chavez Jr returning to the ring that quickly. As such, we’re probably talking about September or more likely October before we see Froch-Chavez Jr.
That means Froch will have been out of the ring for a year and a half by the time he fights in 2015. He hasn’t fought since May of last year in beating George Groves. When you’re out of the ring for as long as one and half years, you obviously lose fans, as well as your sharpness. I don’t think it’s a smart move for Froch to be so inactive for such a long period, and I think he’s going to be disappointed when/if he faced Chavez Jr and the pay-per-view numbers are underwhelming. It’s the wrong opponent for Froch to be facing if he wants to bring in the PPV buys.
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