By Scott Gilfoid: Matchroom Sport Promoter Eddie Hearn has a two-fight plan for his fighter Carl Froch (31-2, 22 KO’s) involving Froch facing either Mikkel Kessler (46-3, 35 KO’s) or Andre Ward (26-0, 14 KO’s) next before the end of the year, followed by unbeaten George Groves (19-0, 15 KO’s), according to Dan Rafael of ESPN. As you would expect, Hearn is leaning way, way in the direction of putting Froch back in with Kessler for a third fight rather than having Froch face Ward again and getting whipped for a second time.
Hearn said to ESPN “Commercially, Froch versus Kessler III is just a huge fight. The first two were stunning nights and everyone knows what they would get from the decider…we will give Mikkel and his body time to see if he wants to go again.”
Why is Hearn only talking about Kessler’s body needing to heal? I kind of remember Froch taking a lot of heavy shots as well. In fact, I think Froch took the harder shots in this fight and his face was marked up more. Kessler was only hit with a bunch of jabs.
It’s so, so clear that Hearn wants the Kessler-Froch III fight rather than putting Froch back in with Ward and potentially seeing his #1 fighter in the Matchroom Sport stable stomped even worse than last time by Ward. The last time they fought, Ward had a broken left hand that he came into the fight with and yet he was still able to have his way with Froch from start to finish. A healthy Ward is a scary thing because he could turn Froch into another Chad Dawson and knock him down over and over again before stopping him.
If Ward wants the fight with Froch, he’s getting no choice but the UK or nothing. Hearn is saying that it’s got to be in the UK because it makes more money there. I agree with that and I think Ward won’t have any problems with fighting Froch over there as long as Hearn isn’t dictating to him.
As for Groves, Hearn is hoping that he captures one of the world titles by the time that he pits Froch up against him next year so that it’ll be a unification match. The only that Groves captures a world title is if he’s matched against WBO super middleweight champion Robert Stieglitz and even in that fight I’m not so sure Groves can beat him. If Groves goes after the WBC title, which will likely be held by Sakio Bika after he faces Marco Antonio Periban this month, I can see Groves losing to Bika.
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