Never had shown himself to be particularly durable or strong hearted though.
Most common picks originally were for Ward to school him the first go and win widely. He actually surpassed a lot of expectations. Hell, an ESPN expert poll even had Hopkins favoured and lots on forums picked him to beat Kov too.
Steveh583 wrote: ↑06 Sep 2019, 12:31
You must be new
He was mandatory for the WBC that joe vacated to face Hopkins ffs. He rang him live on itv asking for the fight. Regardless of who would have won, you are WAY OFF there.
And it cracks me up that people demean Froch's career by stating that there was once another boxer in history that could potentially have beaten him. 'Froch was poo cos the was once an undefeated, unified, two weight champ (who could potentially be the greatest British fighter ever) that may have beaten him...oh they didn't fight....the boxer vacated his title instead of face him....but still.....'
Calzaghe avoided Froch (because he had bigger fight to fry?)
Froch avoided DeGale (who was also a mandatory). Froch either wanted a Ward rematch or retire and he retired.
So basically.. Froch did to DeGale, what Calzaghe did to him.
BTW, i'm nor for or against any of these 3. Not a fan of any of them.
Wasn't doubting Joe's bottle. Merely pointing out Carl CLEARLY didn't avoid him as the OP stated. Joe would have outpointed him, but Carl would have been a nuisance like bika imo