By Sean McDaniel: After last night’s fight in Nottingham, the victorious newly crowned IBF super middleweight champion Carl Froch (29-2, 21 KO’s) made an earth shattering revelation by stating that he would have retired from boxing had he lost the fight to Lucian Bute (30-1, 24 KO’s). As it turns out, Froch didn’t need to because he easily won by a 5th round TKO in a huge upset.

Froch said “It was all or nothing. If I lost tonight, I was going to announce my retirement. I am so excited about my future.”

Froch’s future could see him take on one of several possible opponents starting with Mikkel Kessler, who beat Froch by a 12 round decision in Denmark in 2010 in the Super Six tournament. Froch has wanted a rematch with Kessler for some time but because of Froch being tied down in the Super Six tourney and Kessler nursing various ailments, the fight hasn’t been a possibility.

Earlier this month, Kessler fought for the first since last June, beating American Allan Green by a 4th round knockout. A fight between Kessler and Froch is a strong possibility, it may not happen right away because Kessler could end up facing the winner of the August fight between WBO super middleweight champion Robert Stieglitz and Arthur Abraham. Kessler would do well against either fighter.

Froch’s other options aren’t quite as interesting. He can fight a rematch with WBA super middleweight champion Andre Ward, who beat Froch last December by a 12 round decision in the Super Six tournament finals. Froch can also face Bute again in a rematch in Montreal, Canada. The two fighters have a rematch clause, although Bute may not choose to take it because of how badly he was beaten by Froch. If he does, then Froch will get an interesting fight against Bute and a good payday as well.

If Bute chooses not to take the fight, then Froch has a couple of interesting choices to make to defend his IBF title against starting with Adonis Stevenson, the #2 IBF contender. Stevenson can really punch and is very fast, but he’s raw and still needs a lot of work. He’s already been stopped by the hard hitting Darnell Boone, and one can imagine Froch would be able to do the same if he can weather an early storm from Stevenson. Froch can also face #2 IBF Edwin Rodriguez. That would be a good fight because Rodriguez has got a lot of skills and is an unbeaten fighter. Froch is already familiar with Rodriguez, and it would make for an interesting fight.