Froch turned down a fight with Calzaghe.

[Box-Office]

24:00







Interesting stuff.

[sunny31]

Good interview - no one will acknowledge this however. People refuse to accept that Calzaghe was a great fighter.

[Redd Foxx]

Good interview - no one will acknowledge this however. People refuse to accept that Calzaghe was a great fighter.

True that. Simply incredible cardio and workrate. I don't think I've ever seen better. Lots of heart. Most people only watched his late fights, when his hands were wrecked, and remember him for not hitting heavy but that's really their ignorance and their loss. Just too bad he wasn't either 5 years younger or 5 years older so we could have seen him in more interesting matchups.

[M Bison]

True that. Simply incredible cardio and workrate. I don't think I've ever seen better. Lots of heart. Most people only watched his late fights, when his hands were wrecked, and remember him for not hitting heavy but that's really their ignorance and their loss. Just too bad he wasn't either 5 years younger or 5 years older so we could have seen him in more interesting matchups.

Correct including myself, I think you can still appreciate how good a fighter he was though and there certainly was some good fights because I started late I missed Robin Reid for one which I watched, what a great fight.

[Dirk Diggler UK]

Frank Warren has said this for years. Must be new to boxing if you think this is news.

The circumstances around the offer are never really revealed though

[sunny31]

True that. Simply incredible cardio and workrate. I don't think I've ever seen better. Lots of heart. Most people only watched his late fights, when his hands were wrecked, and remember him for not hitting heavy but that's really their ignorance and their loss. Just too bad he wasn't either 5 years younger or 5 years older so we could have seen him in more interesting matchups.

Yeah his resume leaves a lot to be desired because he could have achieved a lot more, but you just know he would have competed with anyone. Very adaptable, and he could definitely punch hard early on in his career. His technique was obviously flawed, but he was extremely heavy handed, a lot of fighters who fought or sparred him alluded to this.

I think people too quickly jump to accusations when fighters pull out of fights, in his case I think this is held against him, when he had genuine injuries and lost years of his career that could have further enhanced his legacy and probably during his prime years. The domination of Lacy, and ease at which he neutralised a prime Kessler gave a good indication of his talent. He was expected to dominate Hopkins at the time everyone thought Hopkins was over the hill, and Calzaghe struggled big time, in retrospect it was a close fight against a Bernard who was still one of the best fighters in the world p4p, and regardless of who you thought won, Calzaghe struggled to overcome Hopkins skill, but Hopkins struggled to neutralise Calzaghe's workrate, and did resort to illegal tactics, lots of holding, and faking injuries.

Calzaghe is not blameless as well in his lack of competition, I think he lacked confidence sometimes in his own ability, and sometimes believed in the hype of his opponent, i.e. Lacy when he wanted to pull out with a hand injury, but his Dad and Warren convinced him that he could beat Lacy even with the damaged hand.

[Boxing Goat]

It's water under the bridge now. Joe was retiring by the time Froch really became a star. Their paths just didn't quite line up right. There's no doubt in the world that both guys would have fought one another if the circumstances were right so it's not really worth debating now.

[soul_survivor]

When was the fight offered to Froch? Was it around the same time as Froch was calling Joe out or earlier, when Froch was too green? Maybe the money was chump change?

What's interesting is, I've seen countless Joe interviews and he has never himself, mentioned such a thing so I think Warren maybe be playing a bit loose with the truth.

Heck, I remember Joe and Froch together on SKy and neither mentioned any contract negotiations.

[Clegg]

The offer was that if Froch won, he would be tied to Warren for his next 2 fights afterwards. A lot of boxers know how shady Warren is, remember when he owed Calzaghe a 7 figure payday and he declared his company out of business and started a new one so he wouldn't he wouldn't have to pay? You can't blame a strong minded guy like Froch for not wanting to let a snake control his career and earnings. No way Warren lets Froch go to the US for Taylor or chase the most dangerous fights.

Pretty sure Hennessey addressed this claim also and said that there was no way he or any promoter would agree to a deal that saw him sign away control of his fighter's career in exchange for him getting a title shot.

I haven't heard of Warren doing this kind of thing recently but if you go back to when Brook vs Matthew Hatton was first set to happen, the fight fell apart because Warren would only agree to it if he got two options on Hatton after the fight, which Hatton understandably refused just like Froch did.

[Dirk Diggler UK]

All promoters ask for options though. This must have been before Froch was mandatory to the WBC title.

Froch probably wanted to get into a mandatory position so he didn't have to sign options with Warren.

That's when Calzaghe moved up to pursue bigger fights.