By Scott Gilfoid: While the boxing world is interested in seeing WBA super middleweight champion Carl Froch fight Gennady Golovkin, Sergey Kovalev or Andre Ward, Froch says he’s motivated to fight 50-year-old Bernard Hopkins and the inactive Julio Cesar Chavez Jr, who hasn’t fought since last year in March.
Froch says he might fight twice in 2015 if he can get a fight against Hopkins in the summer and then a fight against Chavez Jr later in the year if the opportunity presents itself.
Earlier this week, Froch vacated his IBF title after the International Boxing Federation had ordered him to start negotiations with James DeGale, his mandatory challenger. Froch wasn’t motivated to fight DeGale, however, so he decided instead to vacate his IBF title. DeGale will now fight Andre Dirrell for Froch’s vacated IBF title on April 25th.
Froch thinks the boxing public is interested in seeing him fight Chavez Jr, which is why he is trying to get a fight against him.
There was talk many years ago about Froch potentially fighting Hopkins, but the fight never came off for whatever reason. It’s interesting that Froch is now suddenly interested in fighting Hopkins considering that Hopkins was beaten by WBO light heavyweight champion Sergey Kovalev in his last fight in November. Hopkins basically lost every round of the fight, and he looked his age.
The obvious thing you have to wonder is why does Froch want to fight the loser of the Hopkins-Kovalev fight rather than the winner? Maybe it’s just me, but I see that as a very peculiar thing. I mean, wouldn’t it be better if Froch were to fight Kovalev instead of the 50-yesar-old Hopkins? Why is Froch interested in fighting Hopkins now that he was beaten by Kovalev rather than fighting him before the loss?
“There was a date mooted for the Chavez fight, but obviously I couldn’t do it because of the elbow [injury],” Froch said via the Nottinghampost.com. “But if it comes to it and that fight against Chavez is available then I’m obviously not going to rule it out even if Hopkins fight takes place. I could end up having two fights this year. I’ve always said it has to be something that will motivate me and they are the only two options that get me excited.”
Like the Chavez Jr situation, I think Froch is late in selecting Hopkins as someone he wants to fight. The time to have fought Hopkins was before he was dominated by Kovalev, not after. Likewise, the time to fight Chavez Jr was before he was beaten by the 38-year-old Sergio Martinez in 2012, not after.
Fighting Chavez Jr and Hopkins now just makes Froch look like he’s fighting guys who are no longer relevant. The top guys now at 160 and 175 are Gennady Golovkin and Sergey Kovalev. Why Froch isn’t looking to fight both of them is hard to understand.
Froch’s loyal boxing fans say that he’s earned the right to fight Chavez Jr because he’s beaten Lucian Bute, George Groves and Mikkel Kessler. I don’t agree.
I see those guys as being thin in talent, and I don’t see it as a big deal that Froch beat them. Andre Ward already whipped Kessler, and Bute has since been exposed by Jean Pascal. If Froch has earned the right to fight one soft job in Chavez Jr, then he shouldn’t get a free pass in fighting a second one in Hopkins. Froch should have to then fight the best in the light heavyweight division in Kovalev or Adonis Stevenson, since both of those guys are champions. The last time I checked, Hopkins no longer holds world title belts.
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