Golovkin vs. Froch: Hearn Gives His Take on The Possibility

By Edward Chaykovsky

A few weeks ago, retired former super middleweight titleholder Carl Froch and IBF, WBA, IBO, WBC middleweight titlist Gennady Golovkin exchanged harsh words over social media.

The two of them were in talks to face each other in 2015. Froch, 39-years-old, lost his desire to fight and made a decision to retire from the sport.

Froch has been out of the ring since May 2014, when he knocked out George Groves in the eighth round of their rematch that drew a record 80,000 screaming fans to London’s Wembley Stadium. Golovkin (36-0, 33 KOs) made his UK debut in September, when he traveled to London and stopped IBF welterweight champion Kell Brook in five rounds.

After Golovkin's promoter, Tom Loeffler, recently revealed that his boxer was still very much interested in traveling to the UK to fight Froch at a catch-weight - it seemed to peak Froch's interest on the fight.

The Nottingham boxer sent a text message to his promoter, Eddie Hearn, requesting information regarding the catch-weight. Hearn advised him that Golovkin was willing to go up as high as 170, and Froch asked if GGG was open to 172.

Then a week later Froch went on Sky Sports and firmly stated that he doesn't plan to come out of retirement for Golovkin.

Despite Froch's recent statements on the subject of coming back, Hearn still believes there might be a possibility of a ring return.

“The thing with Carl is he’s a pure competitor,” Hearn said to ESPN. “So when he watches GGG against Brook what he’s thinking is, ‘I can beat him, I know I can beat him’ and it will eat him up a little bit. But it’s going to take a lot for him to come out of retirement. He turned down a fortune to fight Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. just because he had a bit of a niggle in his elbow and he couldn’t really get himself up for it because after the Groves fight it was like, ‘I’ve given everything that night and it feels like the end to me.’ It’s remarkable to retire off that night. How many fighters retire off a night like that? Very few. But I know him. He’ll be in his garage on his punch bag thinking about Golovkin.

“He was probably feeling me out (about the weight). I think there’s a little curiosity from Carl. For me, Carl’s a very good friend of mine and what made Carl so good is his competitive instinct and his desire and his hunger. If you take that away he’s not the same fighter. So after two years out and all the money he’s made does he still have that? There is definitely a beast inside Carl Froch. We’ll see.”