Carl Froch’s willingness to fight the toughest opponents has been evident throughout his career and his desire to fight Kazakh boxer Gennady Golovkin should be admired.
If other boxers adopted a similar high risk, high reward strategy, the sport would be the better for it. However, Froch is also failing to adhere to one of the oldest rules in boxing – knowing when to quit. He hasn’t fought for a year and at the age of 37, his reflexes are slowing. In his previous two fights he made hard work of beating the previously unexceptional George Groves and Froch should take his well deserved place in retirement as one of Britain’s greatest ever super middleweight boxers.
Gennady Golovkin has struggled to find opponents prepared to face him and given his 90.9% knock out rate it’s not surprising. The Kazakh would need to go up a weight category to fight Froch. The Briton undoubtedly believes this would give him an advantage of using his natural bulk and strength to hurt Golovkin. Moreover, Froch would be confident his famously resilient chin would be able to handle Golovkin’s own naturally powerful style.
In all likelihood these are the delusions of a fading world champion. Golovkin has taken a long time to reach boxing’s elite since turning professional after the 2004 Athens Olympics. Since then he has recorded 33 victories from 33 fights and has never been knocked down in any amateur or professional fight. The Kazakh would simply be too quick for Froch.
As Ricky Hatton demonstrated, there is no shame in losing to the very best boxers in the world. But Froch doesn’t need to prove me right – his time has already been and gone and he deserves more than to lose in his last fight before retirement.
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