How DARE Oosthuisen call himself "world champion"

[Earl-Hickey]

Offered a fantastic fight with Froch where he was really in a nothing to lose situation, for a "real" world title, but blatantly didn't want it.

Will now likely fight Brian Magee or the corpse of Librado Andrade or something

Saying he's "not ready" is pathetic excuse, get in there and give it a go, this is the warrior sport and losing to a guy like Froch is no shame

Screw you, Tommy "gun" you coward, you are a joke and so is your IBO

[dan_cov]

I see where he is coming from but the Brian Magee is a lose-lose situation IMO

No shame in losing Froch, no shame losing to Magee either but where will he go from that should he lose?

Froch makes much more sense financially.

[Light_Speed]

Offered a fantastic fight with Froch where he was really in a nothing to lose situation, for a "real" world title, but blatantly didn't want it.

Will now likely fight Brian Magee or the corpse of Librado Andrade or something

Saying he's "not ready" is pathetic excuse, get in there and give it a go, this is the warrior sport and losing to a guy like Froch is no shame

Screw you, Tommy "gun" you coward, you are a joke and so is your IBO

Tell that to Fernando Vargas and David Reid. When you're trying to build a fighter, you don't rush him in there with a big puncher early in his career. His handlers must have realized that a brutal KO loss could have damaged his career and ruined his potential so they want him to get more polished, more seasoned before he steps up against a worldclass fighter. Nothing wrong with that. Who was Froch fighting when he had 21 fights?

[hookoutofhell]

Nah I agree with what he’s done.

If Tommy really is the next big thing then throw him in with the big dogs when he’s ready but at the minute just let him learn his craft.

I have no problem with fighters being allowed to develop but I have a major issue with fighters padding their records and protecting their ‘0’ (JCC jnr and amir khan spring to mind).

I’d like to see him taken on Miranda/Andrade/Bika.

Besides any young fighter knows once you have lost your ‘0’ some networks lose their interest.

[Jim Jeffries]

1. No one takes the IBO seriously as a world title.
2. At Tommy's age, Froch hadn't yet turned pro.
3. After Tommy's number of fights, Froch was still fighting local boxers.
4. It would be idiotic to fight the second best SMW in the world if he's not quite ready.

[Clegg]

It's too early for him so I think he's right to wait.

It is stupid if he considers himself a real world champion, but it doesn't really matter because they're all paper titles now. Froch isn't a real world champion either. He's a very good fighter with some very good wins and he deserves a lot of credit for his career, but Andre Ward is the champion of 168lbs, everyone else is either a contender or a paper chapion.

Froch's belt means more, because most people consider the 4 belts to be legit and the rest to be unimportant. But all that really matters is who you beat, IMO holding the IBF belt isn't worth much more than holding the IBO belt.