Froch’s options for next fight not so good after Chavez Jr loss

By Boxing News - 04/20/2015 - Comments

froch7343By Scott Gilfoid: WBA super middleweight champion Carl Froch had been hoping to get a nice payday fight against former WBC middleweight champion Julio Cesar Chavez Jr for later this year.

Froch had thought that the fight against the 29-year-old Chavez Jr. would play out as a big deal both in the United States and in the UK on pay-per-view. That dream fell apart last Saturday night when Chavez Jr. was dismantled by light heavyweight Andrzej Fonfara in his quit job after the 9th round.

The loss means that Froch will either need to look for another opponent for his next fight, or choose to fight Chavez Jr. anyway and hope that boxing fans in the United States and the UK will still want to see the fight. Personally, I think Froch needs to move on and look in another direction towards someone like Gennady Golovkin.

Of course, Froch can also retire if none of the options available to him interest him. However, Froch says he always wanted to see his name in lights in Las Vegas, Nevada, and the only way he can do that is if he continues fighting and takes on a quality opponent. In that case I think someone like Golovkin would be the ideal opponent for Froch, because he’s unbeaten, highly respected and willing to fight Froch in Vegas or the UK.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kskr90fDzL4

Golovkin is also willing to take the smaller cut of the financial pie in a fight against Froch. It’s like that right now, but it won’t stay that way if Froch continues to stay out of the ring.

Froch would have faced Chavez Jr. by now except that an elbow injury sidelined Froch and kept him from fighting.

In terms of interest in a Froch-Chavez Jr fight, I don’t think it’s a fight that would sell at this point. It’s past the due date after the performance that Chavez Jr. put in last Saturday against Fonfara. Heck, Froch might as well get a hold of George Groves and fight him again, because I think the interest in that fight would be more than a Froch vs. Chavez Jr. fight. That’s not to say that the interest won’t be there in the future, but for that interest to come back Chavez Jr. is going to need to rebuild his career by picking up some wins.

Golovkin would be a really tough test for Froch, unlike Chavez Jr. I could definitely see Golovkin cutting off the ring on Froch and then bludgeoning him into submission along the ropes. Froch hasn’t fought in close to a year now, and he obviously isn’t getting better sitting on his backside without fighting. If he were to come back and fight Golovkin in his next fight, I think the boxing public would be very interested in the fight, much more so than a Froch vs. Chavez Jr, or Froch vs. Groves 3 fight.

If Froch gets knocked out, so what? He’d be knocked out by the best middleweight in the world. But if Froch were to lose to Chavez Jr., he’d take major criticism because of how poor Chavez Jr. has looked in his pats defeats.

Overall, I think it’s a win-win situation for Froch if he were to face Golovkin because of the tremendous upside for Froch if he wins. He’d have compliments poured all over his head by boxing fans from around the world, not just from the UK. And if Froch loses the fight, no one would blame him because he’s facing a guy that’s well respected by boxing fans.

No one had reminded Froch that Chavez Jr’s last two fights had been against middleweight journeyman Brian Vera, and that Chavez Jr. had looked horrible in both fights that took place on regular non-PPV HBO. Despite all that Froich and his promoter Eddie Hearn were interested in facing Chavez Jr. Why they were interests in that fight is anyone’s guess.



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