By Edward Chaykovsky
Retired former super middleweight champion Carl Froch believes WBA/WBC/IBO/IBF middleweight champion Gennady 'GGG' Golovkin (35-0, 32KOs) will struggle with bigger fighters at 168-pounds, and especially those with power.
Top Rank's CEO Bob Arum, who promotes WBO super middleweight champion Gilberto “Zurdo” Ramirez (34-0, 24KOs), told BoxingScene.com last week that he reached a deal in principle, with Tom Loeffler of K2 Promotions, for a fight with Golovkin 2017.
Ramirez became the first Mexican fighter to capture a world title at 168-pounds after unseating longtime champion Arthur Abraham in April as part of the Manny Pacquiao vs. Timothy Bradley undercard at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas.
Ramirez will make his first defense against Dominik Britsch on July 23 at the MGM Grand as part of the HBO pay-per-view undercard to the Terence Crawford-Viktor Postol unification. Golovkin's handlers are in talks to face British champion Chris Eubank Jr., possibly on August 27th in the UK.
Froch was in talks to face Golovkin last, but offered a catch-weight of 172-pounds - which the 160-champion found a big too high.
Besides Ramirez, Golovkin's handlers have also discussed the possibility of fighting IBF champion James DeGale, Bernard Hopkins and Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. at 168-pounds.
“I’ve not bought into this Golovkin hype. He’s obviously a very good fighter and can obviously punch very hard, but let’s not forget he’s a small middleweight," Froch told The Sun.
"Don’t forget there’s a little bit of history between us. There’s no bad blood or animosity, but I think he’s too small for a super-middleweight that punches like I do. Against any super-middleweight that can bang a bit, I think he’s going to struggle.”