By Scott Gilfoid: IBF/WBA super middleweight champion Carl Froch’s promoter Eddie Hearn is saying that Top Rank Promotions and former WBC middleweight champion Julio Cesar Chavez Jr are back in talks about a fight between Froch and Chavez Jr for 2015.
Froch wants to fight Chavez Jr in Las Vegas, Nevada because it’s a place where he’s never fought before, and he rightly or wrongly thinks that Chavez Jr is a big enough star for a fight between them to be a pay-per-view bout in the U.S.
I think Froch is wrong about that, but he can find out for himself. Froch-Chavez Jr has regular HBO written all over it, as far as I’m concerned.
“Talks have reopened with Chavez and Top Rank,” Hearn told ESPN.co.uk. “Talks with Top Rank will continue this week, I have a conference call with them tonight, and I’m hopeful I will deliver the fight that Carl Froch wants, which is to tick off a box of fighting in Las Vegas to crown what has been a sensational career.”
I think it would be a heck of a lot better if Froch and Hearn were to target someone like Gennady Golovkin, Miguel Cotto, Saul “Canelo” Alvarez, Andre Ward or one of the Dirrell brothers. Chavez Jr is someone who hasn’t really done much since 2012, as his two fights against Brian Vera brought in less than impressive stats on HBO. Picking Chavez Jr to fight is like digging up someone from the past.
I’m not sure if Froch has been asleep for the past two years and missed the news of Chavez Jr’s one-sided loss to Sergio Martinez as well as his gift decision win over Vera in their first fight. If Froch had seen the news about these fights, I think he would be going in another direction for his Las Vegas fight. The fighter with the popular name right now is Golovkin, not Chavez Jr. But, Froch and Hearn don’t have to listen to me.
They can go ahead and pick out Chavez Jr, and then likely wind up disappointed at PPV numbers far, far below what they imagined them to be. My guess is a Chavez Jr-Froch fight would bring in around 100,000 PPV buys at best, and I’m being kind here.
“I’ve said before if I can’t fight in Vegas I’ll probably call it a day,” Froch told ITV News. “It has to be big, and Chavez Jr is that man, and I have had a good chat with my promoter this morning and we are making good progress with that fight and hopefully we’ll have an announcement soon.”
Froch is so convinced that Chavez Jr is the big name, but I think he’s going to be sadly disappointed when that fight fails to interest boxing fans in the U.S.
If Froch fights Chavez Jr, then Froch will likely be stripped of his IBF strap by the International Boxing Federation for failing to fight his IBF mandatory challenger James DeGale. Hearn is thinking that DeGale and the Top Rank promoted Gilberto Ramirez can fight for the vacant IBF title, and then Froch will in turn fight the winner of the DeGale-Ramirez fight.
That sounds like a good idea on Hearn’s part, but I just wonder if Froch will go for that plan. Ramirez is awfully talented and he goes to the body like a prime Julio Cesar Chavez Sr. I think he’s all wrong for Froch, and I can see him saying he’s not excited about the fight and that he’s not motivated enough to get out of bed at 6 am for his morning runs to get ready for the fight.
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