By Scott Gilfoid: Former super middleweight world champions Carl Froch and Andre Ward (32-0, 16 KOs) trash talked each other on Tuesday in a war of words on Twitter in continuing to their bad blood from last Monday. Ward unleashed the dogs of war when he labeled the bitter-sounding Froch (32-2, 24 KOs) as a “hater” following his article on former 168 lb champion George Groves’ retirement announcement.
Instead of Froch playing it nice, as most other boxing media chose to do in complimenting Groves about his excellent career, Carl threw in a couple of shots about how he didn’t like him, and didn’t think he was clever or funny. The comments from Froch arguably should have been left out of the article, because of it was bad timing, but he chose to include them. The boxing public didn’t receive Froch’s article well, as he’s been taking shots from fans ever since.
Here’s the interaction between Froch and Ward on social media on Tuesday:
Ward: “This dude is the biggest hater. You’re over 40, bro, let it go. This arrogance is off the charts.”
Froch: “Can you remind everyone why you retired again?
Ward: “@Carl-Froch, you still mad, bro? SMH. Old and bitter, and just old and bitter. Stop blocking all the fans that don’t agree with you. Stop it!! You’re too old for that too.”
Froch: “No TV interest, it’s as simple as that.”
Ward: “@Carl_Froch, No TV interest? Who told you that?…Eddie? #YouDuckedTheRematch. Now you mad at me.”
Froch: “HBO told me, and you know him, and everyone knows you didn’t have the minerals to come to the UK. #Truthhurts.”
Ward: “@Carl_Froch, don’t throw HBO under the bus. Be honest with yourself. You didn’t want the rematch. We all know why. Its OK. @CobratDuckedTheRematch.”
With all the attention Froch and Ward have received with their back and forth war of words, it might be a good idea for them to finally put together a rematch after all these years. Ward beat Froch by a 12 round unanimous decision in December 2011. Ward totally schooled Froch in that fight, exposing his lack of inside game, and making him look almost inept on the inside.
What’s hard to know is why Froch, 41, is still so bitter when it comes to Groves. The guy helped Froch in a major way to build interest for both of their fights in 2013 and 2014. After having his first fight with Froch prematurely stopped by a referee that put him in a headlock in the ninth round without warning, Groves created all the hype for the second fight with Carl at Wembley Stadium all by himself. Groves could have sulked after the way the first fight was stopped, but he didn’t. He was mature and treated it in an adult manner by moving on and doubling down with his promotional efforts to make his second fight with Froch even bigger. During the build up for the second fight, Froch had stopped saying much to the media when it came to promoting the match. Froch looked like he was in the full passive aggressive mode during the build up for the second contest with Groves, which in effect made George do all the work of promoting the fight. Groves proved to be up to the task, as he made that fight a huge one. With all the good money Froch made in those two fights with Groves, he was able to retire from boxing and live a comfortable life.
