i admit he achieved a lot more than i ever thought he would.
the charles adamu fight completely clouded my judgement on him for years.
Probably a fair assessment on "very good" rather than "great" in that he was never the best in his division and won't go down as an all time great in the way that fighters like Jones Jnr, Mayweather etc will. He was certainly great on the British scene though and is in my view up there with Benn, Eubank and Collins in terms of achievements.
With regards to the last 12 months YES, as I said calling people out, then backing off when they showed interest (Hopkins/GGG) CONSTANTLY evoking the Groves fight, the venue and attendance ... (even when he was interviewing Floyd Mayweather ) his own colleagues on SKY were taking the p*ss out of his for the ENDLESS Wembley/80,000 mantra.
And as for the 'Too Big Too Strong For GGG' pic on Twitter,
And I know I'm going to get abuse for this but (dare I say it?) was his career that remarkable?
Apart from Bute every 'world title' he won was vacant.
Was seconds away from losing to blown up Middle Jermain Taylor.
LOST to Dirrell (no matter what the judges said)
Lost to Kessler/barely beat Kessler, who was perhaps slightly over the hill and beaten with EASE by Calzaghe.
Abraham who was/is sh*te at 168lbs.
Johnson 50 year old Lightheavy, dead at the weight.
TOTALLY outclassed by Ward.
Nearly sparked by Groves who was unproven at world level.
The thing about Froch is, you can dispute his performances as much as you want, but you can't dispute his desire to fight the best.
In the days where Pac and Floyd took 200 years to fight each other, and world champions are often defending against padded records, Froch wasn't afraid to fight anybody. Not many boxers you can say that about these days.
i admit he achieved a lot more than i ever thought he would.
the charles adamu fight completely clouded my judgement on him for years.
Probably a fair assessment on "very good" rather than "great" in that he was never the best in his division and won't go down as an all time great in the way that fighters like Jones Jnr, Mayweather etc will. He was certainly great on the British scene though and is in my view up there with Benn, Eubank and Collins in terms of achievements.
The thing is, he will be remembered as a great warrior - maybe not great in terms of skills, but a real fighting man all the way.
I think he deserves to be mentioned in the same sentence as Benn, Eubank and Collins without a shadow of a doubt.
Not an ATG - but pretty sure he will make the hall of fame.
I think what we can all agree about Froch is that he was a fighter who utterly maximised the talent he had and the opportunities he had.
No-one could ever legitimately say that Froch was in any way an underachiever or that he could reasonably have done more. In many ways he was a fairly big over achiever especially in terms of the huge sums of money he earned.
Yes I would have loved to see the GGG fight and I get the impression that Froch knew he would have been up against it hugely in that one but no-one can criticise him for not fancying that really.
Glad he's retired. Ultimately I think its a little bit of a shame he didn't do it in the ring after the Groves fight but that's nit picking.
Can certainly say he gave me some of the better boxing experiences of watching boxing on TV over the last few years, Pascal, the Taylor moment and the Kessler fights, particularly the first. Equally getting to see the Bute fight will long live as one of my best live boxing experiences. Absolutely brilliant night!
Over the last 30 years I can only think of 2 British born boxers who boxed literally all of the top boxers in their division - Lennox Lewis and Carl Froch.
This is not a criticism of other boxers I am a fan of (Benn, Eubank, Naz, Hatton etc.etc.) but the same can't be said for any of these.
Froch's career will be fondly remembered by boxing fans around the world and rightly so. A good fighter and one of the hardest men in the sport.
He truly fought the best available and has a fantastic CV.
But in the end Froch was not going to deliver the fights the fans wanted (degale/GGG/ward) and was losing credibility chasing a payday in vegas against JCC Jr while avoiding bigger fights with some fairly weak excuses.
I'm not knocking him neccesarily, his heart clearly wasn't in those challenges and when thats the case it's time to hang them up and be remembered for the great things he did in the sport
ILikeBeer wrote:
The thing about Froch is, you can dispute his performances as much as you want, but you can't dispute his desire to fight the best.
In the days where Pac and Floyd took 200 years to fight each other, and world champions are often defending against padded records, Froch wasn't afraid to fight anybody. Not many boxers you can say that about these days.
Great post. Says it all. Shocked you came up with something so good BF!
bripez wrote:Over the last 30 years I can only think of 2 British born boxers who boxed literally all of the top boxers in their division - Lennox Lewis and Carl Froch.
This is not a criticism of other boxers I am a fan of (Benn, Eubank, Naz, Hatton etc.etc.) but the same can't be said for any of these.
Hatton fought 2 guys that were, at the time, p4p no1 on the planet and beat a guy who was shortly before ranked no3 p4p.
Were there a few guys he could have fought and didn't?
Perhaps.
But let's not go painting Ricky as some kind of ducker.
Also Lennox never fought Bowe (not his own fault) or Tyson anywhere near his prime
Last edited by davie on 14 Jul 2015, 07:53, edited 1 time in total.
bripez wrote:Over the last 30 years I can only think of 2 British born boxers who boxed literally all of the top boxers in their division - Lennox Lewis and Carl Froch.
This is not a criticism of other boxers I am a fan of (Benn, Eubank, Naz, Hatton etc.etc.) but the same can't be said for any of these.
Hatton fought 2 guys that were, at the time, p4p no1 on the planet and beat a guy who was shortly before ranked no3 p4p.
Were there a few guys he could have fought and didn't perhaps. But let's not go painting Ricky as some kind of ducker.
Also Lennox never fought Bowe ( not his own fault) or Tyson in his prime
Lewis to be fair was still an amateur when Tyson was in his prime.
Fair play to Froch, wish him all the best in retirement. His record speaks for itself; non-stop genuine world class opponents since 2008 (Pascal Fight) wth the only exception being Yusaf Mack. But even Mack wasn't a terrible challenger by today's standards. As mentioned it's been nice to follow his career right from the beggining when he was using Paul Bonson as a punch bag and pole axing the likes of Mike Duffield all the way to his world title exploits. He'll be missed
Also, it's not mentioned often but one of his outstanding acheivements was beating a dangerous young boxer called George Groves at Wembley Stadium no less. Not sure exactly how many people were there but I think it was around 80,000. He flattened him.
Last edited by black panther on 14 Jul 2015, 09:43, edited 1 time in total.
However he`s remembered the facts are that he did it,he achieved an awful lot through living a dedicated fighters life and ducking nobody,a true man`s man and for that he has my respect.
Personality wise he may have lacked the flair and charisma to become a true superstar,but who cares ? He`s entertained us for the last decade and deserves to retire and enjoy the fruits of his labour,he will be missed though.
Regarding a rematch with Ward,the interview that Froch gave just before the Brook-Gavin fight summed him up for me,he laconically stated that Ward would probably beat him again but he`s love the challenge,and for me that was a relaxed Froch that knew he probably wouldnt fight again and came across as a nice realistic guy with no airs or graces.
Enjoy retirement Carl,you`ve earned it !
jamesmcdonnell wrote:
Figure of fun? Ridiculous statement. Carl earned the right to consider his options - he's consistently taken on the most dangerous opponents out there.
I think there's a lot of negativity towards Froch based on the first fight with Groves. People seem to remember the controversy, rather than his record.
Pretty daft - his record is what defines him as a fighter, not anything said in pre or post match verbals. Groves acted like a complete bellend himself.
There is an inteview on sky on demand where he talks about his retirement and it sounds like he has given it an awful lot of thought so I think this i unlikely.
black panther wrote:Fair play to Froch, wish him all the best in retirement. His record speaks for itself; non-stop genuine world class opponents since 2008 (Pascal Fight) wth the only exception being Yusaf Mack. Hatton found his fair share of stiffs But even Mack wasn't a terrible challenger by today's standards. As mentioned it's been nice to follow his career right from the beggining when he was using Paul Bonson as a punch bag and pole axing the likes of Mike Duffield all the way to his world title exploits. He'll be missed
Also, it's not mentioned often but one of his outstanding acheivements was beating a dangerous young boxer called George Groves at Wembley Stadium no less. Not sure exactly how many people were there but I think it was around 80,000. He flattened him.
Carl Aldo added the word 'Cobra'd' to the English lexicon.
) his own colleagues on SKY were taking the p*ss out of his for the ENDLESS Wembley/80,000 mantra.
