By Scott Gilfoid: It’s been six years since Andre Dirrell (24-1, 16 KOs) lost a highly controversial fight against Carl Froch in October of 2009 in Froch’s home city of Nottingham, UK. Despite losing that fight, Dirrell is still very much interested in getting the 37-year-old Froch back into the ring to show who the better fighter is.
To Dirrell, if Froch retires now, he’ll have to live with his questionable victory over him for the remainder of his life. Dirrell thinks it is better that Froch faces him to try and erase the taint of his controversial win. Dirrell notes that Froch gave his fellow British fighter George Groves a rematch in order to clear the controversy up surrounding their first fight in November of 2013.
Dirrell figures that Froch should be looking to face him to clear up an even more controversial win from their 2009 fight. Dirrell sees Froch as having lost to both himself in 2009 and Groves in 2013. The only difference is that Froch was willing to give Groves a rematch, but not himself nor fellow American Andre Ward.
“Hell yeah I want to get him in the ring. That’s my number one target, man,” Dirrell said via Fighthype.”I mean, he gave George Groves a rematch and he knocked George Groves out, or he so-called knocked George Groves out. But we know George Groves dominated that first fight, and like Froch did in previous fights, he came back and he got the job done. If he [Froch] retires today, there will always be the questionable win against Andre Dirrell.”
I think Dirrell is a great fighter and definitely on his way to capture Froch’s old IBF super middleweight title, but I believe Dirrell is wasting his time by trying to pursue a rematch against Froch. I don’t believe that Froch is interested in fighting Dirrell or Ward ever again. Froch got his one taste against both of them, and I believe that was enough to last him for a lifetime.
Froch seems to be closely guarding his legacy right now, and I don’t think he wants to end his career with defeats against Dirrell and Ward. As such, I think Froch is going to keep far, far away from both of these talents rather than facing them and taking potential one-sided defeats. Heck, if Froch isn’t willing to fight DeGale, who some boxing fans see as a knockoff version of Dirrell, then I certainly don’t see Froch willing to share the ring with Ward and Dirrell again.
As of now, Froch is still nursing an injured elbow that he hurt somehow without being in training camp for a fight. Once that injury heals, Froch is hoping to get a fight against Julio Cesar Chavez Jr at some point this year. If Froch wins that fight, it’s anyone’s guess who he’ll choose to fight. Froch mentioned possibly wanting to fight DeGale, but I doubt that fight happens.
As for Dirrell, he’ll be fighting DeGale on April 25th if the fight can get made. They’ll be fighting for the vacant IBF 168 pound title that Froch just vacated. Many boxing fans expect Dirrell to win that fight.
“When the time comes, I’m going to dethrone him [Froch],” Dirrell said.
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