Does Froch deserve to be in the Boxing Hall of Fame?

By Scott Gilfoid: Now that former super middleweight champion Carl Froch (33-2, 24 KOs) has hung up his gloves for however long before we likely see the obligatory comeback fight, the question is does Froch deserve to be in the boxing Hall of Fame based on what he’s accomplished during his 13 year pro career.

I don’t right off hand that the 38-year-old Froch has done enough to rate getting the nod for the boxing HOF. You can’t make it too easy to get in the Hall of Fame for any sport, because once you start voting guys in for getting victories over the likes of Lucian Bute and a shot Mikkel Kessler, the you cheapen the accomplishment thing.

Froch’s best wins of his career came against the following eight fighters:

Jermain Taylor – had been previously beaten twice by Kelly Pavlik before Froch fought him.

Mikkel Kessler – in his mid-30s when Froch beat him. No longer the same fighter he’d been in earlier part of his career when he lost to Joe Calzaghe and beat Froch.

Lucian Bute – a fighter who had never been tested before during his career. He held the IBF 168lb title from 2007 to 2012, but he basically beat fringe contenders the entire time. Bute was beating guys like an old Glen Johnson, Edison Miranda, Jean-Paul Mendy, Brian Magee, Librado Andrade, Fulgencio Zuniga, William Joppy Alejandro Berrio and Sakio Bika. There’s no quality there in the guys that Bute beat. He never was tested by a talent like Andre Dirrell or Andre Ward. As such, it wasn’t surprising that Froch beat him, but it also tells you that Froch didn’t accomplish anything in beating him.

Andre Dirrell – Froch arguably lost this fight but was given a controversial 12 round split decision victory in his own hometown of Nottingham, UK. To this day many boxing fans feel that Dirrell won the fight. No rematch was given to Dirrell, which is very interesting.

Glen Johnson – this win for Froch wasn’t special because Johnson was in his 40s. If Froch couldn’t beat a guy as old as Johnson, then he might as well have hung up his gloves years ago.

Arthur Abraham – Beating Abraham wasn’t a big deal because he’s clearly too small for the super middleweight division. He was routed in the Super Six tournament in losing to Dirrell, Andre Ward and Froch. Since he left the tournament, Abraham has fought limited opposition in facing only these guys: Robert Stieglitz [three times], Paul Smith [twice], Nikola Sjekloca, Willbeforce Shihepo, Giovanni De Carolis, Mehdi Bouadla, Piotr Wilczewski, and Pablo Oscar Natalio Farias. Abraham is now the WBO super middleweight champion, but he still hasn’t beaten anyone good, and he’s lost to mediocre fighter in Stieglitz.

George Groves – Froch’s two wins over Groves is no big deal because Groves was untested before Froch beat him, and we saw how Groves failed that test. I expect Groves to fail his next test on August 22nd when he faces WBC super middleweight champion Badou Jack. Once Groves loses that fight, you can expect Froch’s stock to plummet.

Jean Pascal – Beating a flawed Pascal wasn’t anything special for Froch because Bernard Hopkins did a better job of beating Pascal in his mid-40s than Froch did.

Based off Froch’s biggest wins of his career, I can’t give him my vote for the Boxing Hall of fame, I just can’t. For me to vote Froch into the HOF, he would have needed to face Dirrell and Ward in rematches, beat them, and then face Sergey Kovalev, Adonis Stevenson, Artur Beterbiev, Bernard Hopkins and Gennady Golovkin. We’re only talking about an extra seven fights that Froch needed to take and win for him to get into the HOF with my vote. Since Froch didn’t do that, I can’t give him my vote. A lot of boxing fans felt that Froch ducked Adonis Stevenson. All I know is Stevenson was ranked No.1 and ready to fight Froch, and the fight never came about and you have to wonder why.

Froch doesn’t have a solid enough resume even with the wins he did get. There were too many issues with those fights. He beat guys at the ends of their careers in some cases, and under controversy in others. But more importantly then guys Froch did fight are the ones he didn’t fight. There was no reason why Froch couldn’t fight Beterbiev, Bernard Hopkins, Kovalev, Stevenson and Golovkin.