By Scott Gilfoid: IBF/WBA super middleweight champion Carl Froch (31-2, 22 KO’s) says he’s open to fighting unbeaten contender George Groves (19-0, 15 KO’s) after he becomes his mandatory challenger in the future at some point. Groves is currently ranked #3 WBA, #6 IBF at 168, so it doesn’t look like he’ll become Froch’s mandatory challenger before he gets a title shot against the WBO champion Robert Stieglitz.
Froch also says he’ll face WBA super middleweight champion Andre Ward (26-0, 14 KO’s), but not next and possibly not even in his fight after that.
Froch said to Sky Sports “I don’t think that [a fight against Andre Ward] is in our immediate plans; that will be two or three fights down the road.”
So in other words, Froch won’t be fighting Ward anytime soon and I’m SO not surprised. Froch is interested in fighting Mikkel Kessler again for some reason, and his promoter Eddie Hearn wants that fight as well. I guess the idea is to make it another pay per view fight for 15 pounds.
I just wonder if the IBF or WBA will let Froch keep fighting Kessler without defending his titles against his mandatory challengers because there’s no real point in Froch fighting Kessler again right now because their fight wasn’t close enough for there to be a demand for a rematch. There was nothing controversial about Froch’s win over Kessler, and it just wasn’t close enough – or exciting enough – for there to be immediate rematch.
Having Froch and Kessler fighting again immediately in another PPV bout just seems like a money grab where the thought is to make money off the fight rather than moving on and giving more deserving contenders a shot at the titles. I know I wouldn’t want to pay 15 pounds to see Froch fight Kessler for a third time right now because it’s so transparent what this fight would be about. There’s no reason at all for this fight other than for money for Froch and Kessler, and I wouldn’t want to pay anything for this. Kessler looked demotivated last May in their fight, and I don’t see him as having the fire anymore that he once had.
I honestly don’t care whether Froch fights Ward again or not because it’s academic at this point that Ward is the better fighter.
There’s nothing that Froch can do in a rematch that will change that. If Froch’s okay with his loss to Ward, then that’s on him. Froch’s clearly got unfinished business with Ward, as well as Andre Dirrell, who Froch won a controversial 12 round split decision over him in 2009 in a fight that many boxing fans saw as a victory for Dirrell. Those are two blemishes in Froch’s 33-fight career.
Froch said this about Groves to Sky Sports: “If he becomes mandatory…then yes,” [I’ll fight him].
It doesn’t look like Froch is going to fight Groves before he captures a world title because Groves will get a world title shot against Stieglitz, and he’ll probably beat him because Stieglitz isn’t that great of a fighter.
I can see Froch fighting Kessler next in a third fight and then electing to defend his WBA title against little known #1 WBA Stanyslav Kastanov, and then defending his IBF strap against #3 Edwin Rodriguez in what you would have to see as title milking fights. Then I can see Froch possibly fighting Bernard Hopkins, and maybe Groves at that point if Froch’s promoter Hearn can make it a PPV fight.
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