Froch stuck between a rock and a hard place after IBF orders DeGale fight

By Boxing News - 01/03/2015 - Comments

froch81By Scott Gilfoid: Last Friday, IBF/WBA super middleweight champion Carl Froch (33-2, 24 KOs) was given word that the IBF had ordered him to begin negotiations with his IBF mandatory challenger James DeGale (20-1, 14 KOs) for a fight that would likely take place in the spring.

DeGale is a slick fighter in the Andre Dirrell mode, but without the hand speed, power, foot movement and defensive skills that Dirrell possesses. DeGale is obviously a very tough fight for a slower, aging fighter like the 37-year-old Froch, and it’s very likely that Froch will choose to vacate his IBF title rather than defend it against DeGale and risk getting beaten and ending his career on a loss rather than a win.

If Froch doesn’t face DeGale then he’ll likely have to agree to fight WBA middleweight champion Gennady Golovkin. That’s where Froch is going from a difficult fight against DeGale to an even tougher fight where he would be risking getting knocked out by the Kazahstan fighter.

Losing is one thing, but getting knocked out and humiliated is obviously something that Froch will want to avoid at all costs. Golovkin could royally mess up Froch’s legacy by whipping him black and blue before depositing him on the canvas in a bloody and broken heap of flesh.

A loss like that would do a number on Froch’s boxing legacy because it would be one of the last things fans remember about him unless he decides to continue fighting for another two years or so to put some distance between him and the Golovkin fight.

“They have 30 days to negotiate. If they don’t reach a decision, then we call for a purse bid,” said IBF Championship chairman Lindsey E Tucker to Skysports.com.
It doesn’t take a genius to figure out that Froch will probably unload his IBF belt rather than get in the ring and risk losing it to DeGale. But even if that’s the course that Froch will take, it still doesn’t solve his problems.

Froch will still have the WBA title in his possession, but he’ll need a big named opponent if he still wishes to fight in the United States in Las Vegas, Nevada like he’s been talking about.

The only name that will work for Froch is Golovkin. I mean, he’s the only guy around Froch’s weight class who has said that he’d like to fight him. Of course, talents like Andre Dirrell and Andre Ward have also expressed interest in fighting Froch, but there’s no way he’s going to agree to fight either of them because those guys would be arguably even tougher than Golovkin.

I think it’s safe to say that we’ll never see Dirrell and Ward getting another shot against Froch. Golovkin is the guy that is interested in the Froch fight, and the guy who has the name recognition to make a fight between him and Froch a big deal in Vegas. It might not be the big pay-per-view fight that Froch has been dreaming about, but it’s the best Vegas fight he’ll be able to get.

Froch can’t drag George Groves or Mikkel Kessler over to Vegas and expect American fight fans to want to see it live or pay to see it on pay-per-view, because the fans won’t purchase fights of those kinds. They want to see the best, and not mismatches between domestic level guys or fading fighters that have been inactive for two years.



Comments are closed.