BoxRec

I was just watching his fights with Reid and Dodson. Looking back on those fights taking away the knockouts and the wins you'd never of imagined he would go on to achieve what he has! Anyone else think that of Froch in those earlier fights?

BBC used to play him all the time and I thought he looked awful with his sub-RJJ & Tommy Hearns-style. Was convinced he'd get flattened when someone finally hit him back. It turned out he could take a punch and had some fearsome world class willpower, and good for him. He's been good for boxing.

A breath of fresh air after 20 years of mostly stay-at-home, cling-to-a-WBO-belt, bum-of-the-month 'champions'.

loaded_gloves wrote:BBC used to play him all the time and I thought he looked awful with his sub-RJJ & Tommy Hearns-style. Was convinced he'd get flattened when someone finally hit him back. It turned out he could take a punch and had some fearsome world class willpower, and good for him. He's been good for boxing.

A breath of fresh air after 20 years of mostly stay-at-home, cling-to-a-WBO-belt, bum-of-the-month 'champions'.

Yeah too right he has! If only other boxers had his mentality.

columbo wrote:I was just watching his fights with Reid and Dodson. Looking back on those fights taking away the knockouts and the wins you'd never of imagined he would go on to achieve what he has! Anyone else think that of Froch in those earlier fights?

I thought he'd go on to become world champion.

loaded_gloves wrote:BBC used to play him all the time and I thought he looked awful with his sub-RJJ & Tommy Hearns-style. Was convinced he'd get flattened when someone finally hit him back. It turned out he could take a punch and had some fearsome world class willpower, and good for him. He's been good for boxing.

A breath of fresh air after 20 years of mostly stay-at-home, cling-to-a-WBO-belt, bum-of-the-month 'champions'.

He is good for boxing; a credit to the sport and carries himself well though is a bit direct and assertive for my taste. He does show some others up in a bad light.

Definitely took me a while to believe in him.

After what I'd seen at domestic/euro level I thought he'd get found wanting when he stepped up. After the Pascal fight I realised he had a great chin but thought he'd come unstuck against some one with decent handspeed and who threw in combination, I bet on Taylor to beat him. I was impressed with th heart in Kessler I, but felt he lacked ring smarts.

It was in the first couple of rounds again Abraham when it was clear he was following RMs fight plan that I realised he'd learnt his lesson from the Kessler fight. He's a good example of how a loss can be the making of a fighter.

J-C wrote:Definitely took me a while to believe in him.

Me too. I watched him a few times on the BBC about 10 years ago and remember watching him on SKY against Magee, Dodson and Reid. I was never really blown away and wasn't convinced he was destined for world level. He was also never a guy I liked listening too. I found him to be really arrogant.

When Hennessy moved to ITV I remember Froch was supposed to fight Dennis Inkin in a WBC eliminator, but the fight fell through. Froch instead faced Rybacki which wasn't great to watch. I just assumed he'd be one of these guys who talk all the time but never seem to make it to world level due to bad luck, injuries, politics etc....

Everything changed for me the night he faced Pascal. Such an exciting fight. I remember having a smile etched on my face for him when the scorecards where read out. To then follow this up with his late stoppage of Jermain Taylor was even better. I couldn't watch the fight but stayed up to listen to it on radio. I remember Barry McGuigan and Duke McKenzie going totally crazy in round 12. They where out and out shouting Froch on. It was one of those moments I'll never forget. I'm sure I've got it somewhere on my computer. If you've never ehard it I'll put it on Youtube. It's such a fantastic moment.

For me Froch is becoming a British legend.

I was a big doubter, i never thought he'd reach the hieghts he has. I recal telling everyione on here Magee would be the man to expose him, I was convinced Magee would outpoint him. To be fair on myself, Froch was coming off that stinking performance against Westerman and Magee did end up giving him a good run for his money. Froch came good in the end though, great knock out.

Pascal was the turning point for me, as i'm sure many others. Froch was class that night, great great fight.

Never doubted him to be honest!! He was blowing away those guys in 2nd gear during the early years, I always felt he had a lot more in his locker and would get better as he stepped up the levels, which is what happened.

I'v said this before but a big learning fight for him early in his career was against Charles Adamu. Adamu was winning after 7 and I remember distinctly Rob McCracken saying to Carl 'Not being funny here Carl I think you need to win the rest of the rounds' after the 7th round and Carl managed to land one on Adamu and put him down and then he went on to win the rest of the rounds.

I too listened to the Taylor fight on the radio. I went absolutely mental because there were a few clueless French Canadian fans that I'd been debating with online who were putting Carl down and acting like he had no chance. I was always saying that if Carl could stay in touch on the scorecards with 4 rounds left he would come into it.

I think Carl's boxing has come on in bounds since the Kessler loss, he always seemed to look so untidy and slow. Against Abraham he looked so much quicker, then against Ward it seemed to be back to looking untidy again but I do remember Ward seeming tired late and losing the last 2 rounds and I also remember thinking Carl seemed more nervous than ever in that fight. I think he came out in the 1st or the second round really shaking his legs out as he walked like he was really tense. But then the last fight vs Kessler he was somehow seeming pretty quick and had a really decent jab, especially in the first 4 rounds or so. Strange how much some of his performances have differed.

I thought it would be just a matter of time that someone tagged him as he kept 1 arm down all the time. He tired towards the end of fights too. Add the fact that Spud rated him from day 1 and said he would be world champion I naturally thought not a chance. Ooops!

The days of Mick's "Class of 2002"
The worst time ever personally with Ryan losing against Lee Blundell - on the same night Carl made his debut on the undercard.

on the bright side, the slow burn career has saved some great stuff for us. he's performed in a very tough era for super middleweights, 3x champ following 2 defeats, 5 defences total so far, 4 fight of the year calibre wars (pascal, taylor, Kessler 1 & 2), and two of the most dominant performances by a brit in world class fights (Abraham & bute)...

he used to look ropey but all those hard fights have fine tuned him enough. he still has bad habits but there was a massive improvement between the two Kessler fights. he's more assertive, punching first and last in exchanges, and showing more core strength, keeping ring centre and pushing the opponent back rather than drifting through fights allowing the opponent to disctate / lazily trying to walk ppl onto shots, which doesn't work so well.

impressive that he still does 168, at this age.

TheCobra wrote:Never doubted him to be honest!! He was blowing away those guys in 2nd gear during the early years, I always felt he had a lot more in his locker and would get better as he stepped up the levels, which is what happened.

Any chance of next weeks lottery numbers?

Allway's felt he was a slow starter & his hooter begged break me.frochs low hands poor defence & arrogance I felt & hoped he would get found out & he did we found out he has great stamina & strength & durability with stinging punches which can take you out in the twelfth rd

loaded_gloves wrote:BBC used to play him all the time and I thought he looked awful with his sub-RJJ & Tommy Hearns-style. Was convinced he'd get flattened when someone finally hit him back. It turned out he could take a punch and had some fearsome world class willpower, and good for him. He's been good for boxing.

A breath of fresh air after 20 years of mostly stay-at-home, cling-to-a-WBO-belt, bum-of-the-month 'champions'.

I want your top five of these, I am starting a new thread

macaca wrote:

loaded_gloves wrote:BBC used to play him all the time and I thought he looked awful with his sub-RJJ & Tommy Hearns-style. Was convinced he'd get flattened when someone finally hit him back. It turned out he could take a punch and had some fearsome world class willpower, and good for him. He's been good for boxing.

A breath of fresh air after 20 years of mostly stay-at-home, cling-to-a-WBO-belt, bum-of-the-month 'champions'.

I want your top five of these, I am starting a new thread

Enzo Mac has to be up there. He wins the interim title going life and death against a 36 year old Marcelo Dominguez and then his defences were against Mark Hobson, Bobby Gunn, Wayne Braithwaite and Mohammed Azzaoui, before his 1 and only genuine World title fight as champ against Haye.

jameswilson wrote:Enzo Mac has to be up there. He wins the interim title going life and death against a 36 year old Marcelo Dominguez and then his defences were against Mark Hobson, Bobby Gunn, Wayne Braithwaite and Mohammed Azzaoui.

Braithwaite beat Hernandez in 3 rounds in his next fight after losing to Maccarinelli, so Maccarinelli's run as champion wasn't a complete joke.

I'm doubting my memory here, but don't recall the Marcelo Dominguez fight being "life or death" either.

magnus wrote:I'm doubting my memory here, but don't recall the Marcelo Dominguez fight being "life or death" either.

It wasn't life and death in the sense of a huge war but Enzo was from my memory behind before pulling a huge uppercut out the bag to put Dominguez away.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5oe9q7HgGdU

I'll rewatch it tomorrow but just had a quick look at round 8 and 9 and Duke had Dominguez up by a round going into the 9th, obviously commentators aren't always that good at scoring but like I say, from my memory I had Dominguez up too.

Horse wrote:

jameswilson wrote:Enzo Mac has to be up there. He wins the interim title going life and death against a 36 year old Marcelo Dominguez and then his defences were against Mark Hobson, Bobby Gunn, Wayne Braithwaite and Mohammed Azzaoui.

Braithwaite beat Hernandez in 3 rounds in his next fight after losing to Maccarinelli, so Maccarinelli's run as champion wasn't a complete joke.

If David Haye had defended his Cruiserweight belts against Braithwaite the fight before he stopped Hernandez you'd definitely use it in your current anti Haye dossier as a reason as to why he should be slagged off.

jameswilson wrote:If David Haye had defended his Cruiserweight belts against Braithwaite the fight before he stopped Hernandez you'd definitely use it in your current anti Haye dossier as a reason as to why he should be slagged off.

What are you on about? By bigging up Enzo I'm also bigging up Haye's win over him.

jameswilson wrote:

magnus wrote:I'm doubting my memory here, but don't recall the Marcelo Dominguez fight being "life or death" either.

It wasn't life and death in the sense of a huge war but Enzo was from my memory behind before pulling a huge uppercut out the bag to put Dominguez away.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5oe9q7HgGdU

I'll rewatch it tomorrow but just had a quick look at round 8 and 9 and Duke had Dominguez up by a round going into the 9th, obviously commentators aren't always that good at scoring but like I say, from my memory I had Dominguez up too.

Fair enough mate - I don't really remember much of the fight other than the ending. I'm going to play the age card