By Mark Vester
Unbeaten WBC super middleweight champ Carl Froch wants the big names in 2009. At age 31, Froch feels that he needs to step on the gas and move his career forward at a high speed. After a fight of year battle with Jean Pascal to win the title in December, he wants to make his first defense against one of the three biggest names in the division. Jermain Taylor is Froch's mandatory challenger, but HBO, so far, has not shown interest in picking up the fight.
If Froch is unable to defend against Taylor, he would like to unify the title against WBA champ Mikkel Kessler or IBF champ Lucian Bute. He is also willing to travel to America to fight Taylor or another top contender.
“I want to get straight in there with a top contender before I go off the boil. I think the Pascal fight has done a lot of good for me. We had such a good tear-up, we both came away with a lot of credit. It would be nice to establish myself as a world champion, but I'm 31 so there is no time to waste. I'm happy to fight the likes of Taylor or Lucian Bute or Mikkel Kessler. I don't believe in having easy fights,” Froch told The Times Online .
Froch suffered a rib injury during his training camp for the fight with Pascal. The injury took some hits during the actual fight and Froch probably won't see action until April in order to properly heal.
“It's taken ages for my rib to calm down,” Froch said. “It was fractured and that doesn't heal overnight. I've only just been able to start sleeping on that side. I was sore before the fight. I could have had an injection in it, but I didn't fancy the needle in my ribs. It was killing me during the fight.”
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