By Edward Chaykovsky
Retired former super middleweight champion Carl Froch wants Gennady Golovkin (36-0, 33KOs) to step up his level of competition in 2017 and take some risks like going forward with a fight against Andre Ward (31-0, 15KOs), who holds the IBF, WBA, WBO light heavyweight titles.
Golovkin is set to defend his IBF, IBO, WBA, WBC middleweight belts against mandatory challenger Daniel Jacobs on March 18th at New York's Madison Square Garden.
Ward, who is still fresh from his unanimous decision win over unbeaten Sergey Kovalev, is likely going to face the Russian puncher in a rematch on a date in April or June.
A few weeks ago, Froch and Golovkin traded words on the social networks. Froch rejects the possibility of returning to the ring at this point. The Nottingham fighter has been out of the ring since May of 2014, when he knocked out George Groves before a crowd of 80,000 fans at Wembley.
Froch wants Golovkin to take the same risk as IBF welterweight champion Kell Brook, who moved up two full weight divisions to challenge GGG in September.
"Well it's not going to be me against Golovkin is it, so I want to see him in with Ward. Him and his team have said they are the best and will fight anyone, so why not move up to take on Ward. Ward could easily drop back down to super middleweight but maybe Golovkin should go up to light heavyweight. Kell Brook stepped up two divisions and he was quite happy about that, so now it's his turn," Froch told Sky Sports.
"How many middleweights have moved up to at least super-middleweight? Well they keep calling him the best, so the all the best have done it and won world titles, as well. People will think I'd want Ward to win because he beat me, but you've got to give 'Triple G' a real chance. It's time to step up."
