Froch: Calzaghe knew that I was going to beat him

By Boxing News - 04/14/2015 - Comments

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By Scott Gilfoid: Carl Froch is still talking about how he couldn’t get former undisputed super middleweight champion Joe Calzaghe (46-0, 32 KOs) to fight him seven years ago when Froch was trying hard to get a fight against Calzaghe in 2008 before he retired from the sport.

Calzaghe didn’t see any point in fighting Froch because he wasn’t facing the big enough names in the sport at that time for it to be a huge fight. It wasn’t until 2009, after Calzaghe retired, that Froch entered the Super Six tournament and finally cut his teeth against the best fighters in boxing.

I think Calzaghe would have had a very, very easy time beating Froch. It’s actually a good thing for Froch that they didn’t fight because had they mixed it up, I think it would have been disastrous for Froch’s career right when it was taking off. Had they fought, Froch likely would have lost every round in losing a one-sided 12 round decision, and I think that would stopped Froch from ever becoming a big name in the UK. Instead of Froch fighting in the Super Six tourney, it might have been Calzaghe as the guy chosen to represent the UK. I think he would have lost to Dirrell and Ward in the tournament. In the meantime, Froch would have been obscure due to him not getting the visibility that he received in the Super Six.

Before Calzaghe retired in 2008, these are the guys that Froch was fighting: Albert Rybacki, Robin Reid, Sergey Tatevosyan, Tony Dodson and Brian Magee. I mean, can you blame Calzaghe for not wanting to fight Froch? He was facing basically domestic level guys instead of world talents. It just bunch of obscure guys that only hardcore boxing fans would recognize, and even then we’re talking the upper most hardcore fans.

calzaghe445574“That was a fight I wanted,” Froch said via ITV Sport. “He was WBC champion, everyone knew who he was. It was a massive fight back then – I think it would still be a big fight now. I think Joe Calzaghe knew that I was going to beat him.”

Given how bad Froch looked against Andre Dirrell, Andre Ward and Mikkel Kessler in arguably losing to all of them, I think Calzaghe would have had no problems against a slow-footed fighter like Froch. I think it would have been an easy fight for Calzaghe. I think it would be easy in terms of the actual fighting, but if Froch started fouling like he did against Dirrell in their fight in 2009, I think it would have turned into a tough fight for Calzaghe.

I remember how Calzaghe struggled against Sakio Bika in their fight in 2006. Calzaghe was dominating the fight as far as boxing goes, but Bika was roughing him up most of the time, and that made the fight tough. It would have been a heck of a lot easier for Calzaghe if the referee was on his job and taking points off from Bika for the fouling, but it was one of those fights where anything went. Calzaghe was playing it clean so it made it a tough fight.

“Calzaghe might have been too clever for him, but it would have been a hell of a fight, and it’s a pity that didn’t happen, said Barry McGuigan.

Well, you can’t blame Calzaghe for not wanting to fight Froch considering the type of opposition that Froch was facing at the time. It was a fight that was easy to ignore because Calzaghe had bigger fights against American stars Bernard Hopkins and Roy Jones Jr, as well as against Kessler. Froch was just some local lad who was facing the likes of Magee, Dodson, Tatevosyan, Rybacki, and Reid. I wouldn’t have bothered facing Froch either at the time, not until he got in the ring with the talented fighters in the super middleweight division like Ward and Dirrell.

Even if Calzaghe was still around at the time, he wouldn’t have any reason to fight Froch after he was done with the Super Six tournament due to the way he looked against Dirrell, Ward and Kessler. Like I said, those were pretty much three losses for Froch, even though technically he was given a controversial 12 round decision against Dirrell in a fight that many boxing fans saw Dirrell winning handily.



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