By Scott Gilfoid: Former two time world title challenger George Groves (21-2, 16 KOs) says he’s not surprised that Carl Froch (33-2, 24 KOs) is stepping away from the game at the age of 38. Groves noted that Froch really hadn’t been involved in the sport of boxing following his second win over him last year in May 2014, and he figured that his retirement was going to be on its way after that.
Groves feels that Froch will be remembered for the controversy from their first match-up in 2013, in which the referee Howard John Foster suddenly jumped in between them in the 9th round and halted the fight despite the fact that Groves was still fighting back and seemingly in control of his facilities.
“We don’t need to be friends – I’ve got friends,” Groves said to skysports.com. “It was pretty obvious that he wasn’t going to box on after my fight. He hasn’t been involved in boxing since then so I sort of knew that his retirement was coming. I think he’ll be remembered for a few things: One was the controversy in our first fight.”
I think Froch will be remembered more for his controversy in his fight with Andre Dirrell then he will for the controversy in his first fight with Groves. The Dirrell fight was one where Froch appeared to be losing. Froch was given the victory in a fight that took place in his hometown of Nottingham, UK. But more than anything, I think Froch will be remembered for him retiring without facing Gennady Golovkin. That’s something that will really hurt Froch I think. After talking about wanting to fight Golovkin, and saying stuff like “Too big & too strong for GGG” on his twitter account recently, it looks like Froch chose the easy way out by retiring rather facing Golovkin and backing up his words.
Froch would have been so much better off if he’s tired on the night that he beat Groves last year. After that fight, Froch gave up his IBF and WBA titles rather than face James DeGale and Andre Ward.
Froch said he wanted to fight Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. for some reason, which made Froch look bad in the eyes of a lot of boxing fans because Chavez Jr. had already been exposed by Brian Vera and Sergio Martinez recently. Looking to fight Chavez Jr. after those fights, rather than DeGale or Ward, made Froch look bad to a lot of boxing fans. Froch then compounded the problem by not facing Golovkin as well. The image that a lot fans had of Froch at the end wasn’t a good one.
“Just swerve Golovkin like the plague,” Froch said. “He punches like a mule. You don’t need to be in there with him, a dangerous fight.”
The fact that Froch was on record saying that it was best to avoid a fight against Golovkin, I think it’s something that Froch will be remembered for rather than for his handful of wins over notable fighters. Froch didn’t fight Golovkin, he didn’t face Dirrell or Ward in rematches, and he didn’t beat Mikkel Kessler in his prime. Those are the things that stick out when looking at Froch and his legacy.
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