By Scott Gilfoid: IBF/WBA super middleweight champion Carl Froch (32-2, 23 KO’s) admits that he’s starting to feel the case of the nerves now that his rematch with George Groves (19-1, 15 KO’s) is only hours away. Froch, 36, will be fighting in front of 80,000 fans at Wembley Stadium in London, UK.
A loss for Froch could be the equivalent of the passing of the baton from the old to the young, as Groves has already said that he’s not interested in fighting Froch a third time. As such, Froch could find himself out of luck if he gets whipped tonight by Groves. What would be especially bad for Froch if he were to be knocked out by Groves, because he would then have no opportunity to get a third fight with him in order to avenge his defeat.
Froch would then have to move on and try and scratch up a fight with someone else, and I don’t see there being anyone out there other than Andre Ward that would be a big enough name for Froch to redeem himself against.
“If I sit and think about it I can feel my heart beating,” Froch said to Skysports.com. “I know tonight I’m going to be very nervous, and that’s going to switch me on, so throughout the day I don’t really want to think about it or talk about it too much. I’m not really the nervous type, but it’s nerve-racking.”
Yeah, I bet Froch is really sweating bullets right now because there is so much on the line. If he beats Groves, then he’ll be smothered with love adoration from his fans, and it’ll enhance his legacy 10 fold. I mean, the loss to Andre Ward and the controversial victory win over Andre Dirrell would still be lingering as the only tainted fights on his resume that he’d not cleared up, but Froch would have proven himself at least as being better than Groves. James DeGale would still be out there for him to prove himself against, but there’s still no telling what’s going to happen with DeGale tonight in his IBF super middleweight eliminator against Brandon Gonzales on the Froch-Groves card.
As bad as DeGale has looked in half of his fights since his loss to Groves in 2011, DeGale very well could lose to Gonzales. But if DeGale does win, then there’s that fight out there for Froch if he gets passed Groves tonight. I bet Froch’s promoter Eddie Hearn is already thinking of placing a Froch-DeGale fight in Wembley Stadium. I don’t know if that would be a smart thing unless DeGale really shines tonight.
If he beats Gonzales by a controversial decision, then I think the risk of leasing out the Wembley Stadium for a Froch-DeGale fight would be too high. I could see him leasing it out and the only 30,000 fans show up. I guess that’s a good number, but it wouldn’t be worth it to put that kind of fight at Wembley if that’s all that’s going to turn out.
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