By Scott Gilfoid: IBF super middleweight champion Carl Froch (29-2, 21 KO’s) may be on the last stretch of his career with his upcoming fights against Yusaf Mack (31-4-2, 17 KO’s), Lucian Bute and Mikkel Kessler in his next three fights. If Froch wins all three fights, he’ll likely retire from the sport to go out while things are looking good for him rather than sticking around until things go sour.

Unfortunately, the chances of Froch going 3-0 in his next three fights are very slim unless we get some controversial decisions along the way. Froch no doubt will beat the 32-year-old Mack, that’s a given. Froch’s promoter Eddie Hearn has selected a guy that Froch can definitely beat without any problems, which is kind of sad because if Froch does only have three fights left, it’s disappointing that Mack would be one of the three. I don’t care if guys like Kelly Pavlik and Thomas Oosthuizen might have been asking for too much money, you got to make those fights if there’s only three fights left, don’t you? If the name of the game is entertainment then Hearn should have gotten Pavlik or Oosthuizen for Froch, even if it meant Froch traveling to the United States to make the fights happen.

Froch is going to have major problems getting by the talented Bute in Montreal, Canada next year. Bute will have had a lot of time to study what he did wrong in his loss to Froch last May, and he won’t make the same mistakes twice by trying to slug with him. Bute will go back to his hit and run style of fighting and will do pretty much what Andre Dirrell did in his fight with Froch by out-boxing him for 12 rounds. So, I see Froch losing the Bute rematch next year.

If Froch still goes ahead and fights Kessler after he loses to Bute, it’s going to be all but impossible for Froch to win the fight. First off, Froch won’t be in a position to bargain with Kessler after losing to Bute. This means that the fight will take place in Kessler’s home country of Denmark, and that means very few Froch fans will be in attendance. With Kessler feeding off the energy from his fellow Danes, he’ll once again box his way to a 12 round decision over Froch.

At that point, Froch will be 1-2 in his last three fights, so I guess it’ll be a good time as any for him to retire, don’t you think? Sure, Froch can keep fighting but who’s he going to beat? If you put him back in with WBA/WBC super middleweight champion Andre Ward, he’s only going to get whipped again, and by the time Froch gets down with his next three fights, the WBO super middleweight paper champion Arthur Abraham will have already been beaten, so it’s not as if Froch can go pick up an easy paper strap against Abraham. As such, Froch will pretty much have to retire from the sport because there won’t be anywhere for him to go.