By Scott Gilfoid: IBF/WBA super middleweight champion Carl Froch’s promoter Eddie Hearn says that he’s not considering either 168 lb. world title holders Andre Ward or Sakio Bika for Froch’s next fight in November or December this year, as he doesn’t see either of them as being a big enough financial draw for him to make a fight with them for Froch.
Hearn realizes that Froch would like to try and avenge his defeat to Ward, but he doesn’t see the financial incentive being big enough for Froch to want to get in the ring with the Oakland, California native for the fight to happen.
Hearn says that Froch is at the point in his career where he needs to be especially motivated in order to get off the couch and start training for a fight, and if the money or the motivation isn’t there, he won’t take the fight.
Right now, the two fighters that are highest on Froch’s list for his next fight are Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. and Mikkel Kessler in that order. James DeGale is also a possibility, but to a lesser extent. If he picks up a world title in his next fight, then Hearn says a fight between him and Froch is possible for next summer in Wembley Stadium.
“The Bika fight, from a financial perspective, isn’t really up there,” Hearn said to IFL TV.
When asked if he’d be interested in matching Andre Ward with Froch, Hearn said “Not really. It’s nothing to do with him being really good and him being the toughest fight for Carl Froch. But from a financial perspective, Ward’s not a draw. For that fight to be worth the money, it would have to be pay-per-view in America and it’s not. Ward’s going to want too much money for that fight, and he’s not a draw. It’s not really an entertaining fight, because stylistically he’s not that really exciting.”
Hearn went on to say that Kessler is a good possibility for Froch’s next fight, but he’s not sure if there would be a huge demand for that fight for later this year or not. Hearn wants to check on this before deciding whether to make a third fight between the two of them in either the UK or Denmark.
It’s not great surprise that Hearn isn’t interested in the Ward vs. Froch fight because a promoter’s job is to set up fights that they think their fighter can win, and obviously Froch wouldn’t stand much, if any, chance of beating Ward. It would likely be a one-sided fight where Froch wouldn’t win a round and would end up looking really, really bad due to Ward’s superior hand speed, boxing skills, defense and inside fighting ability. Ward would literally beat Froch from pillar to post for 12 rounds and make it look easy. Hearn would be doing Froch a disservice if he put that fight together because Froch would lose, and then it might mess up his chances to get other big fights afterwards because the casual boxing fans would be clued into the fact that he’s not the best fighter in the super middleweight division.
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