By Scott Gilfoid: Right now, things are going swimmingly in the career of WBC super middleweight champion Carl Froch. He’s currently unbeaten, a champion and about to take part in the Super Six tournament starting in October 17th against Andre Dirrell. Froch, 32, is counting on winning the tournament and becoming a superstar overnight.
You can’t blame Froch for trying, because it shows a lot of courage to take part in a tournament like this. There’s like doubt that if Froch ends up winning the tournament, he’ll be one of the biggest names in boxing and be able to command much bigger paydays than he’s been getting thus far in his seven year pro career.
Froch has yet to taste the big mega money that other lucky fighters like Ricky Hatton, Manny Pacquiao and Oscar De La Hoya have gotten used to receiving. However, the chances of Froch, a blue collar fighter with little hand speed and mediocre boxing skills, winning the tournament are very slim. And as I’ve said in a previous article, I have my doubts whether Froch will be able to salvage won victory in the group I part of the Super Six tourney.
This, of course, will eliminate him from the tournament and send Froch, minus his WBC belt and perhaps some of his self worth, packing his bags back to England. Froch will be fighting Dirrell, Mikkel Kessler and Arthur Abraham. Each one of those fighters are very talented with better hand speed and power on the same level of Froch.
When you look at them, it’s difficult to see Froch beating any of them. Froch may have a better chin than those fighters, but that’s about it. Even that’s not a certainty, because Froch was put down by Jermain Taylor in his last fight in April.
So where does Froch go if he’s beaten by all three opponents in the tournament? Getting knocked out of the tournament so quickly would be a good for concern on Froch’s part. It would be an indication that he doesn’t have the talent to succeed at the upper most level. Would Froch still be interested in persisting with his career, maybe in England where the competition is weaker? Froch might be able to find success there for a limited amount of time before the young lions at the local level tear him to pieces.
Surely, Froch wouldn’t likely waste his time on the world level of he’s beaten soundly in all of his three fights in the first level of the Super Six tournament. I could see him sticking around beating some of the fading super middleweights like Jeff Lacy, Taylor, or one of the good but flawed ones like Sakio Bika, Allan Green and Karo Murat, but as far as going up against champions like Kessler and Lucian Bute, I think Froch would be wasting his time in doing that.
Froch could probably make a decent living by competing as a gate keeper in the super middleweight division, but I’m not sure that’s what he has in mind with his career. His ego might prevent him from taking on a status like that. Although he might be one of those types that don’t accept that he lost and feel that the decisions were questionable or that he can improve with hard work. Eventually, however, he’ll get the picture if he continues to take on the best in the division.
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