By Ryan Maquiñana
Carl Froch confirmed that talks have commenced for him to fight domestically in the U.K. after his Showtime Super Six final, according to an interview with Mark Ortega of Undisputed Fight Magazine.
“Yeah, we have one in the pipeline, but nothing’s confirmed,” said Froch at the Oakland presser for his upcoming WBC/WBA/RING unification bout with Andre Ward.
“We’ve talked about Carl fighting again in the U.K. after this,” said Matchroom Sport Group Managing Director Eddie Hearn. “We have talked about venues for it, but right now Carl’s focused on October 29 and winning the Super Six.”
The 34-year old Froch (28-1, 20 KOs), the current WBC super middleweight champion, was adamant that holding the Super Six final in his backyard would have performed better in the box office than the current locale of Atlantic City.
“We could’ve done massive figures in the U.K.,” he insisted. “We could’ve filled it up to 30,000.”
At the London stop of the Super Six press tour, Ward argued to former boxer Jane Couch that Froch had an advantage since he had previously fought in Atlantic City, and that their respective flights from their hometowns (Ward from Oakland, Calif., and Froch from Nottingham, England) were relatively equidistant to Boardwalk Hall.
“The Cobra” dismissed his American rival’s words.
“Sounds like [Ward]’s worried to me,” Froch said. “Sounds like he’s already trying to make excuses. I’m coming away from England to fight an American in America. He’s got the advantages. We know that. We’re not going to make a big deal of it, because at the end of the day, it comes down to the fighter.
“I’m going into the fight to go for a knockout and render him unconscious. That’s what I’m looking at doing. So the officials and the judging hopefully won’t matter. If it does goes to the score, it needs to be fair because we’re both athletes, and because we’re both men.”
In a recent conversation with BoxingScene’s Mitch Abramson, Ward claimed Froch tried to intimidate him by shaking his hand with excessive force and bumping him during a staredown photo-op. Froch downplayed the incident.
“I’ve not read anything where it said I squeezed his hand too much,” he answered. “To be honest, he squeezed my hand quite hard. He might just have a good grip. I don’t think there’s anything personal, but the press likes to make a big deal about these [incidents]. Fair enough. It’s their prerogative.”
Froch had some final words regarding the Canadian supporters of IBF champ Lucian Bute or anyone else who might feel that the Super Six winner should be anything less than the number one 168-pounder on earth.
“They’re entitled to think that because they’re fans of Lucian Bute,” Froch told BoxingScene. “They’re not going to acknowledge that we’re number one, but at the end of the day, everyone in boxing and outside of boxing knows that the winner of this fight is the best super middleweight in the world. Simple as that.”
Ryan Maquiñana is the boxing correspondent at Comcast SportsNet Bay Area. He’s a member of the Boxing Writers Association of America and The Ring’s Ratings Advisory Panel. E-mail him at rmaquinana@gmail.com, check out his blog at www.maqdown.com or follow him on Twitter: @RMaq28.