Froch Laughs at Critics Who Say He "Ducked" Golovkin Fight

By Edward Chaykovsky

Retired super middleweight champion Carl Froch (33-2, 24KOs) is not bothered by the critics who believes he ducked a fight with WBC/IBO/WBA/IBF middleweight king Gennady 'GGG' Golovkin (36-0, 33KOs).

Froch has not fought since May of 2014, when he knocked out George Groves before a record crowd of 80,000 people at Wembley Stadium. He officially announced his retirement from the sport in July of last year.

Prior to announcing his retirement, there was a lot of discussions about a potential fight with Golovkin in the UK.

Froch says Golovkin was never really a serious option for him. He says Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. was a realistic option and there were serious negotiations between his promoter Eddie Hearn and Chavez's adviser Al Haymon - to stage a big fight in Las Vegas. That all fell apart when Chavez made a miscalculated move to move up to light heavyweight and was knocked out by Andrzej Fonfara.

A lot of critics and fans, looking in from the outside, have accused Froch of retiring to avoid the Golovkin fight.

"I don’t get annoyed when people say I ducked Golovkin. People who say I retired rather than fight Golovkin, they’re obviously thick. Look at when I retired and why I retired, and look at when the Golovkin fight was talked about – it was never really an option. It was Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. for a while, then he lost and by that point I’d been out of the ring for a year," Froch told Boxing News Magazine.

“These people who sit there thinking they’re experts and say I retired rather than fight Golovkin, it’s like saying Bruce Lee died before he could beat Mike Tyson. It’s completely irrelevant."

Froch has also stated that he was at odds with Golovkin's team on the weight. He claims Golovkin wanted the fight to take place at 166-pounds and Froch was already unable to get under 170-pounds.

“The Golovkin thing came up and I said ‘fight me at 172lbs and I’ll think about it’ and he wanted me to go down to 166, he wouldn’t even come up to super-middle and I was already retired by that point," Froch said.