By Scott Gilfoid: IBF/WBA super middleweight champion Carl Froch says he’s not interested in either Gennady Golovkin or Andre Ward for his next fight. Froch says if he doesn’t get a fight against former WBC middleweight belt holder Julio Cesar Chavez Jr next then he’ll retire from boxing.
Froch doesn’t have a plan B backup in facing Golovkin or Ward, which is kind of surprising given Froch’s recent comments about wanting to continue his career beyond his next fight.
Froch says that he doesn’t want to fight Golovkin because he sees him as a non-pay-per-view fighter. He also doesn’t want to fight Ward because he says he’d probably lose to the American by a decision. Froch sees the only way he could beat Ward is if he knocks him out.
It’s kind of troubling that Froch is basically coming out and admitting that he’s cherry-picking fights rather than looking to fight the best. At this point in his career, Froch seems to be completely focused on making as much money as possible for his fights rather than looking to face the best.
The interesting part about that is he’s likely going to be badly disappointed with the interest that comes from his fight against Chavez Jr. You see, Froch thinks that a fight between him and Chavez Jr is a pay-per-view worthy fight in the United States, and that’s clearly not the case in my view.
Froch-Chavez Jr is the equivalent of Chavez Jr vs. Billy Lyell and Sebastian Zbik. Those are two of Chavez Jr’s past opponents who the casual boxing fans weren’t familiar with. If you insert Froch’s name in as the next opponent for Chavez Jr and then try and peddle that fight to the U.S consumers on HBO pay-per-view, I think it’s going to be a disaster.
There’s not enough hardcore boxing fans in the U.S to make Froch-Chavez Jr successful on pay-per-view from the U.S. As such, the fight will probably do really poorly in the U.S. Sure, it’ll do well in the UK, but then again Froch can fight guys like Yusaf Mack and do well in the UK, because his British fans will pretty much buy any fight he takes part in.
“Chavez has a massive following in America with his Mexican background,” Froch told BT Sport’s ‘Boxing Tonight’ program as quoted by http://www.dailystar.co.uk/boxing/419114/Carl-Froch-retire-Las-Vegas-fight-Julio-Cesar-Chavez-Jr. “I think I can beat him, it won’t be an easy fight but business wise and don’t forget that professional boxing is first and foremost a business. People talk about [Gennady] Golovkin. He’s not PPV. They talk about Andre Ward, I don’t want to fight Andre Ward. He will probably beat me on points.”
It’s so sad to see Froch admitting that the reason he wants to fight Chavez Jr is because he feels he can beat him. It’s just sad. We see Golovkin and Ward getting ignored while Chavez Jr is in Froch’s sights. I think Froch is dead wrong in thinking that Chavez Jr is a big fight and that Golokvin isn’t.
Chavez Jr has lost a lot of fans since his fight against Sergio Martinez while Golovkin has gained them with his Mexican style of fighting. I wouldn’t be surprised if a fight between Froch and Golovkin would do better than a fight between Froch and Chavez Jr on pay-per-view in the United States.