By Sean McDaniel: While Carl Froch (28-2, 20 KO’s) may have lost his WBC super middleweight title last night in New Jersey in his 12 round decision loss to the speedy WBA super middleweight champ Andre Ward (25-0, 13 KO’s), Froch hasn’t really changed his plans for 2012. Froch wants to face IBF super middleweight champion Lucian Bute in 2012 to capture his title and then face Mikkel Kessler in a rematch to seek revenge for an earlier loss Froch suffered last year in the Super Six tournament.

Eddie Hearn, Froch’s promoter, told Sky Sports News “We’ve had meetings already with future opponents. Carl Froch is going to come back and fight for a world title. Hopefully we can do something in Britain and he can get the fight, the homecoming he deserves after so many on the road. The two fights that stand out are with Lucian Bute or a Kessler rematch. A Kessler rematch at the City Ground in Nottingham in the summer – or something like that – would be a huge event. It’s my job to go out and deliver that. We have the chains off our ankles now as we are out of the Super Six tournament.”

Froch might be better served trying to get the Bute fight first, as Kessler is scheduled to face WBO super middleweight champion Robert Stieglitz in April and won’t be available for a fight until at least September 2012 at the earliest. That’s a huge chunk of 2012 Froch would have to wait for the Kessler rematch. Froch needs to get the Bute fight if it’s there. If not, Froch has little choice but to stay busy either facing some of the top contenders at 168 or move up in weight and fight a rematch with Jean Pascal.

Froch already beat Pascal in 2009, but he’d like to fight him again. A better move would be for Froch to try and pick off one of the light heavyweight champions such as Bernard Hopkins, Beibut Shumenov, Tavoris Cloud or Nathan Cleverly. Arguably the weakest of the four is Cleverly, and that might be a fight Froch would be interested in for a stay busy fight while he waits for Bute and Kessler to get free. Cleverly is a decent fighter but he showed his limitations recently in barely beating fringe contender Tony Bellew. Froch is a level above Cleverly and he’d likely hurt him unless Cleverly changed his game and become more of a mover.