Hopkins: I’ll fight Froch if he’s not afraid to get beat by a 50-year-old

By Boxing News - 05/11/2015 - Comments

1-HopkinsKovalevFinalPC_Hoganphotos3By Scott Gilfoid: Former two division world champion Bernard Hopkins (55-7-2, 32 KOs) is offering super middleweight contender Carl Froch (33-2, 24 KOs) a fight if the British fighter is willing to take a chance on losing to a 50-year-old. Froch missed out on his dream fight against Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. recently when the Mexican fighter was bludgeoned into submission by light heavyweight Andrzej Fonfara last April.

With the Chavez Jr. fight off the table, Froch has gone quiet and seems incapable of making a decision with what to do with his stalled career. His promoter Eddie Hearn thinks that he might retire.

Besides Hopkins, there are plenty of excellent fights out there for the 37-year-old Froch such as a fight against Gennady Golovkin or the soon to be IBF super middleweight champion Andre Dirrell. Of course, those are all very, very dangerous fights for Froch, and one could understand why he wouldn’t want to take them. Froch’s best wins of his career have come against a past his best Lucian Bute and Mikkel Kessler.

“I would like to fight [Carl] Froch. He brings a fan base like I bring and I think I have a fan base on both sides of the world,” Hopkins said via RingTV.com. “I’ll accommodate him if he’s serious, if he’s not afraid to get beat by a 50-year-old. I’ll do it over in his country or over here; he says he wants to fight in Las Vegas. I try to make it where nobody has a way out.”

Hopkins would be a very serious test for Froch, who had to struggle to defeat a very, very green George Groves in their first fight in November 2013. Froch also had major problems with Mikkel Kessler in 2013. Kessler looked like he wasn’t motivated for the fight and yet he still almost beat Froch.

I don’t know that Froch would be willing to risk his legacy such as it is against a talent like Hopkins. While we saw Hopkins get beaten in his last fight by IBF/WBA light heavyweight champion Sergey Kovalev last November, we’re talking about a bigger, stronger and a lot fiercer fighter in the Russian fighter compared to Froch. You can’t blame Hopkins for losing to a menacing knockout artist like Kovalev. But against Froch, Hopkins would have an excellent chance of whipping Froch. But if Froch gets beaten, it’s no big deal.

He’d be getting a lot of cash for the Hopkins fight, and it would be the perfect gold parachute cash out type fight. I think it would be the perfect cap for Froch’s pro career. I mean, there’s a huge, huge difference in ending your career in a fight against Hopkins compared to ending your career with a win over Groves, don’t you think? The same for ending one’s career against Golovkin. I’d rather end my career against Golovkin or Hopkins than Groves, but that’s me. I wouldn’t want to end my career on an empty win over a domestic level fighter with a chin problem. I’d want to fight the actual best.



Comments are closed.