Froch takes on Reid...
Posted: 08 Aug 2007, 11:26
Carl Froch defends his British super-middleweight title on home turf at the Nottingham Arena on November 2 against former WBC champion Robin Reid - a coming together of dangerous, feisty characters promoted by Mick Hennessy.
Unbeaten Froch won the title with a first-round blasting of stablemate Damon Hague in Nottingham in 2005 and retained three times to secure the coveted Lonsdale Belt for life (he retained his old Commonwealth belt seven times). An impressive 21-0, Froch has taken out 17 of his opponents and is raring to go again after knee and hand injuries in recent months. Last time out in March, he blew away Russian southpaw Sergey Tatevosyan in two rounds - the first time Tatevosyan had ever been stopped. Carl is a cockure, almost arrogant champion and made the Nottingham Arena his own personal fortress but he's not getting any younger at 30 and this is the toughest-looking fight of his career, certainly since he caught up with Brian Magee in 11 rounds last year - a man Reid dropped four times and easily outscored a few years earlier.
Reid is a creaking 36 but the Reaperman has lost only to world champions Joe Calzaghe, Silvio Branco, Sugar Boy Malinga, Sven Ottke and Jeff Lacy in a career stretching back to 1993. He looked on the slide when Lacy hammered him in seven rounds in Florida in August 2005 - Reid was stopped (and floored) for the first time in his career - but after 19 months out, he outscored American Jesse Brinkley over eight bad-tempered rounds in the UK v USA Contender show in Newcastle in March to prove there is life in the old dog yet.
He won the WBC super-middleweight title from Vincenzo Nardiello in seven one-sided rounds in Italy in October 1996 and made three impressive defences before slippery Malinga outscored him in Millwall in December 1997. Reid later held Calzaghe to a split decision in a WBO title challenge in Newcastle in February 1999 (judge Paul Thomas had him ahead 116-111) and dropped another close decision to Ottke in a challenge for IBF and WBA titles in Nuremberg in December 2003, a decision the Runcorn man descibed as "beyond a joke."
Belgian referee Roger Tilleman warned Reid for hitting the German, denied him a knockdown, took a point off... "At least Dick Turpin wore a mask when he robbed people," said charismatic Robin, an 'adult' movie star who knows all the glib one-liners.
Reid's pet punch is the overhand right and Ghanaian Charles Adamu found Froch easy to hit with the shot in a gruelling 12-rounder in Nottingham in March 2004. Indeed, Froch has been criticised for holding his hands low but likes to whip in hooks and uppercuts from unusual angles. He has long arms, hence his nickname of "The Cobra".
'Action!'
Unbeaten Froch won the title with a first-round blasting of stablemate Damon Hague in Nottingham in 2005 and retained three times to secure the coveted Lonsdale Belt for life (he retained his old Commonwealth belt seven times). An impressive 21-0, Froch has taken out 17 of his opponents and is raring to go again after knee and hand injuries in recent months. Last time out in March, he blew away Russian southpaw Sergey Tatevosyan in two rounds - the first time Tatevosyan had ever been stopped. Carl is a cockure, almost arrogant champion and made the Nottingham Arena his own personal fortress but he's not getting any younger at 30 and this is the toughest-looking fight of his career, certainly since he caught up with Brian Magee in 11 rounds last year - a man Reid dropped four times and easily outscored a few years earlier.
Reid is a creaking 36 but the Reaperman has lost only to world champions Joe Calzaghe, Silvio Branco, Sugar Boy Malinga, Sven Ottke and Jeff Lacy in a career stretching back to 1993. He looked on the slide when Lacy hammered him in seven rounds in Florida in August 2005 - Reid was stopped (and floored) for the first time in his career - but after 19 months out, he outscored American Jesse Brinkley over eight bad-tempered rounds in the UK v USA Contender show in Newcastle in March to prove there is life in the old dog yet.
He won the WBC super-middleweight title from Vincenzo Nardiello in seven one-sided rounds in Italy in October 1996 and made three impressive defences before slippery Malinga outscored him in Millwall in December 1997. Reid later held Calzaghe to a split decision in a WBO title challenge in Newcastle in February 1999 (judge Paul Thomas had him ahead 116-111) and dropped another close decision to Ottke in a challenge for IBF and WBA titles in Nuremberg in December 2003, a decision the Runcorn man descibed as "beyond a joke."
Belgian referee Roger Tilleman warned Reid for hitting the German, denied him a knockdown, took a point off... "At least Dick Turpin wore a mask when he robbed people," said charismatic Robin, an 'adult' movie star who knows all the glib one-liners.
Reid's pet punch is the overhand right and Ghanaian Charles Adamu found Froch easy to hit with the shot in a gruelling 12-rounder in Nottingham in March 2004. Indeed, Froch has been criticised for holding his hands low but likes to whip in hooks and uppercuts from unusual angles. He has long arms, hence his nickname of "The Cobra".
'Action!'
Agree with that. Reid's at least two years past the point where he could have won this.