Froch says he would have retired if he had lost to Groves

By Scott Gilfoid: IBF/WBA super middleweight champion Carl Froch (33-2, 24 KO’s) had his career on the line last Saturday night when he defended his titles against George Groves (19-2, 15 KO’s) in their rematch at Wembley Stadium, in London, UK. Froch says he would have retired if he had lost to Groves. This is kind of startling at the same time disappointing because it makes you wonder whether Froch still has his head in the game at this point in his career.

“I don’t want to go out or finish my career, because my career would have been over,” Froch told nottinghampost.com. “I would have retired if I lost that fight. I didn’t want to go out and be remembered in the biggest fight in British boxing history post-war as a loser.”

It seems to me that Froch is putting too much weight into his fights with Groves, as we’re not talking about him facing the best fighter in the 168lb division, are we? Groves, as good as he is, he’s basically a young inexperienced fighter with one semi-meaningful win on his resume against James DeGale. It’s not as if Froch was fighting Andre Ward or anything. I could understand Froch bellyaching about how might retire after a loss to Ward, but a defeat to Groves?

I think that would look incredibly bad if Froch decided to hang up his gloves just because he got out-boxed by Groves. I mean, it wouldn’t be the first time that Froch got out-boxed by someone, as Andre Ward and Andre Dirrell both did it in the past. They created the blueprint in how to beat Froch, and he didn’t retire after his fights with them. Froch got a gift a decision in the Dirrell fight in which he arguably should have lost that fight by 5 rounds and perhaps been disqualified for the fouling he did. And Andre Ward totally schooled Froch.

When you have someone that is leaning so far into the direction of retirement, I think it makes them vulnerable to getting beaten. I mean, it wasn’t going to happen last Saturday night with all the mistakes that Groves made. Froch had the perfect opponent in front of him in that fight due to Groves’ chin problems and his inexperience. Groves still seems to be learning how to fight, and I think he wasn’t developed enough to beat a fighter like Froch at this early point in his career.

If Groves had more time to develop and learn simple things like not fighting off the ropes, not standing in front of big punchers, and not throwing wide left hooks, he probably could have beaten Froch. But he was still far too flawed to be thrown into the ring with a guy like Froch at this point. He just wasn’t ready at all.