By Gav Duthie: I am quite pleased that the governing bodies are starting to order fights that the public wants to see. Adonis Stevenson is bring made to fight Kovalev if he bests Pascal, Miguel Cotto now has Golovkin as his WBC mandatory and the WBA have ordered a rematch between Andre Ward and Carl Froch. As we know ordering a fight doesn’t mean it will happen but its a good start. Unfortunately in my honest opinion Carl Froch won’t go near a fight with Andre Ward.
Legacy
Carl Froch made £8million/$12 million in beating George Groves in an 80,000 sellout crowd with 900,000 PPV buys. Froch does NOT need to make a penny more from boxing and he knows it. He will only fight again if he really feels the motivation for it and doesn’t want to damage his legacy. When I recently listened to Carl on radio he admitted he wasn’t the most talented fighter and the reason he beat better opponents was his motivation, training, stamina and warrior mentality. He knows if he puts in anything less than 100% he could lose his next fight and harm his legacy. He is 38 in July 2015 and I think he would rather retire than lose.
Motivations
For Froch to fight again he needs something that will improve his legacy or tick his boxing bucket list. He is realistic enough to know that beating Ward is unlikely. To top the sell out Wembley experience he needs to either fight in Las Vegas as a headline act or sell out The City Ground (Nottingham Forrest football stadium) in his hometown. If he can’t do either of these things he won’t fight.
Something to lose
Part of Froch legacy is never backing down from a challenge and not refusing a fight. However Froch now has something to lose. For anyone who doesn’t know British TV boxing politics Froch suffered from a lull in interest. Froch v Pascal was one of the last terrestrial tv bouts and since Calzaghe had retired and Audley Harrison was a flop there was little interest. If you weren’t signed by Frank Warren (Sky Sports exclusivity at the time) you had to fight elsewhere. Froch had nothing to lose at this time fighting on failed experiment Primetime so it made sense to fight in the Super six. Although he finished runner up in the Super Six he had lost twice (Kessler, Ward) and fighting Lucian Bute (considered best in division) was essential or his career. My point is Froch always took big risks because he needed to whereas now he doesn’t.
Possible fights
The main reason I think Froch won’t fight again is bacause of what he said about a list of potential opponents on a recent interview I heard on Talksport.
Froch on:
Kessler: It would be difficult to get motivated to fight someone who I know is tough and I know I couldn’t knock out.
Hopkins: He would be difficult and I don’t know if I could get up for it.
DeGale: He is a great prospect and it is now his time but it’s just not something I would be up for.
Golovkin: He is not big enough in the U.S and I want a fight in Vegas.
Chavez and Ward
He really really wants to fight Julio Cesar Chavez Jnr. The fight ticks two boxes 1. He believes he would win and 2. It would happen in Vegas. Andre Ward might happen in Vegas but he wouldn’t be sure of victory so he won’t do it.
My thoughts
I believe he should fight Ward or Golovkin. I couldn’t care less about Chavez and neither could most of the true boxing fans. I don’t just think this as a fan I also believe his legacy could be improved with these fights. I believe Golovkin isn’t big enough to knock Froch out and beating him would be huge. I think Ward is beatable just because he has fought twice in three years. He needs a tune up fight and Froch could look to take him to a place he doesn’t want to go. Of course I still think Ward would win but if there is any time to beat him its now. Whatever Froch decides he has had a great career and should be proud.
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