Froch: Andre Ward is difficult to work with

By Boxing News - 07/23/2013 - Comments

ward54By Scott Gilfoid: IBF/WBA super middleweight champion Carl Froch (31-2, 22 KO’s) was in fine form in telling Sky Sports why he can’t fight WBA super middleweight champion Andre Ward (26-0, 14 KO’s). Froch says he can’t fight Ward because he says he won’t come to the UK to fight him.

This would sound believable except for the fact that Ward told a nationwide U.S audience on HBO last May on the Froch vs. Mikkel Kessler II telecast that he’s open to traveling to the UK to fight Froch.

Here’s what Ward said on HBO: “I don’t have to come to the UK but it’s not out of the question. Let’s talk about it if you’re serious or else just stop ringing my name up…His record is 4-2 on the road and he’s undefeated in the UK so I know why he wants it here.”

Froch said today in an interview with Sky Sports “I obviously want to avenge that fight [Ward] before retiring. It’s very difficult to work with Andre Ward. He wants me to come over to America. He talks about how he won’t come to England.”

It seems to me that Ward is saying he will come to England if Froch and his promoter Eddie Hearn are serious about making the fight, but they don’t appear to want the fight with Ward again. We heard Hearn saying again and again after Froch’s recent win over Kessler that the British public were more interested in seeing Froch fight Kessler again than seeing Froch fight Ward for a second time.

In other words, the British public would rather see a rerun of a fight that they just saw instead of seeing a guy that easily handled Froch two years ago. I guess I can understand that. If you’ve got a hero and you know he doesn’t stand a chance against a certain fighter, of course you’re not going to want him to fight that guy because he’s going to get exposed again. I mean, it’s a serious buzz kill when your heros get spanked repeatedly by the same fighter. So maybe it’s good that Froch isn’t going to face Ward next, because I think it would be a serious downer for Froch’s fans.

I just wish Froch would just acknowledge that he doesn’t want to fight Ward because he’s too good instead of saying it’s because he doesn’t want to come to the UK. Ward said in plain English that he will indeed come to the UK to fight Froch, but he wants discussions to take place.

Thus far, it doesn’t look like Hearn has bothered calling Ward about a fight to see if what he says is true about being open to fighting Froch in the UK. I wonder why Hearn isn’t calling Ward?



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