By Dave Lahr: They say bad things happen in threes. First with Joe Calzaghe’s abrupt retirement from boxing, which took away the biggest star in the UK, and then with Ricky Hatton’s humiliating second round knockout loss to Manny Pacquiao on May 2nd. And now with World Boxing Council (WBC) super middleweight champion Carl Froch (25-0, 20 KOs) looking at possibly fighting Bernard Hopkins in the near future.

Hatton is thinking of retirement after the loss to Pacquiao, and my thoughts are Froch might have to consider the very same options should he be destroyed in a similar fashion by Hopkins. It seems as if there’s not preventing the Hopkins-Froch bout from going ahead, because Hopkins is reportedly interested in the fight, and Froch is too.

On the surface, it’s a fight that will clearly benefit both Hopkins and Froch, because the American boxing public was pleased with Carl’s performance in his 12th round come from behind knockout over former WBC/WBO middleweight champion Jermain Taylor on April 25th.

It was a highly exciting fight, because it seemed as if Froch had no chance to win the fight going into the 12th, and yet he somehow willed himself to victory by giving it his all and coming up with the knockout in the 12th against Taylor. However, Froch looked very beatable throughout the fight and seemed to be aided by Taylor’s poor stamina in the last six rounds of the fight.

Had Taylor not faded in the last six rounds, we’d probably be discussing Taylor vs. Hopkins III instead of a potential Froch bout. Froch has a lot of fighting spirit and a big heart, but I don’t think he has nearly enough talent to beat a fighter like Hopkins. My concern is that if Froch gets battered, knocked out or soundly beaten like Kelly Pavlik was by Hopkins, Froch might be looking at retiring just like Hatton.

I doubt that Froch would retire, since he has the British local scene he can always retreat back to, but I think it might be something that goes through Froch’s head if he gets beaten badly enough by the 44-year-old Hopkins. Beating Taylor was a big feather in Froch’s cap, but it left a lot of questions about Froch’s talent.

He looked slow, and showed very little defensive skills as he was hit often by Taylor in the fight. Much of the time, Froch would come in with his hands down by his sides and looking to land shots without his guard up.

In his past fights, Froch has been able to avoid getting hit by leaning back or to the side to get out of the way of shots. However, against a fighter with much faster hand speed like Taylor, Froch was getting hit again and again without blocking any of the shots. This is something that Hopkins would take advantage of with his precise pin point short punches. Hopkins wouldn’t tire out like Taylor did, and would be still throwing leather even in the 12th.

I doubt that Froch would react well to being defeated by a knockout or a lopsided decision and he might find himself having to hang up the gloves and move on with his career should he lose.