Sauerland Events insider: “Carl [Froch] may think he calls the shots but he isn’t”

By William Mackay: Former World Boxing Council super middleweight champion Carl Froch is threatening to withdraw from the Super Six tournament unless his next fight against Arthur Abraham takes place in Froch’s home city of Nottingham, England. Froch was led to believe that his stage 3 Super Six tourney fight with Abraham would be in England, and not in Germany. Froch’s promoter reportedly got a verbal agreement from Sauerland Events, who promote Abraham. They didn’t get a written agreement, however.

In an article at the Daily Star, Froch says “If I am not fighting in Nottingham then I will quit the tournament – there is no doubt about that. We had an ¬agreement that the next fight would be there and now they are suddenly trying to move the goalposts.” However, according to an inside source for Sauerland Events, there has been a misunderstanding from Froch’s team.

“They have misunderstood. The only agreement was that the next fight would take place in Europe. The situation is this – the fight will go to where the money is. Carl [Froch] may think he is calling the shots but he isn’t.” Ouch! Froch seems to be on the verge of quitting the Super Six tourney unless he gets his way and the fight goes ahead and takes place in Nottingham. Froch lost a 12 round unanimous decision to Mikkel Kessler last Saturday night in Herning, Denmark, and Froch feels that he should have won the fight, not Kessler. Froch thinks that he would have received the decision had the fight taken place in Nottingham, where he recently won a questionable 12 round split decision over American Andre Dirrell in the first bout of the Super Six tournament.

It’s going to be interesting to see if Sauerland calls Froch’s bluff to see if he is serious about really wanting to pull out of the Super Six tournament because of this. Froch isn’t a champion anymore now that he lost his title, and may not have the pull that he thinks he has in getting his way. Abraham is a huge star in Germany and it’s doubtful that his promotional company will want to give in on this.

They want to have the fight take place where it will make the most money, and in Germany, there’s possibilities of putting it in a huge arena with thousands upon thousands of fans. It’s unclear whether Froch could offer the same thing in Nottingham. If Froch does walk out on the Super Six tourney, he may very well be shooting himself in the foot, because he’ll eventually have to travel to one of the champions home cities in the future anyway when he challenges for a title in the future away from the Super Six tournament.

It isn’t like one of the super middleweight champions are going to go to Nottingham to fight Froch, a challenger. Froch might as well fight in the Super Six tournament. At least that way his fights will be seen by boxing fans from around the world, and even if Froch does end up losing by a controversial decision against Abraham in Germany, at least fans from around the world would see it and he wouldn’t lose much from the loss.

This was kind of the case with Andre Dirrell’s loss to Froch in their stage 1 fight of the Super Six tournament. Many people felt that Dirrell won the fight. As such, Dirrell didn’t lose much from the defeat. The same thing can apply to Froch. He’s better off sticking with the tournament, fighting hard and trying to get to the semi finals by out-working Abraham. It isn’t like Abraham throws a lot of punches. If Froch can just be busy enough, he might be able to squeeze out a decision somehow.