by Sean Crose
Despite the belief of those who feel a match between British super-middleweight Carl Froch and Mexican superstar Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. is pretty much a legal impossibility, Rob McCracken, Froch’s trainer, claims negotiations between the two camps are “moving in the right direction.”
Still, there is ample evidence to suggest the fight might indeed be difficult to make happen. Chavez is having legal issues with promoter Bob Arum and the IBF has ordered Froch (its Super Middleweight champion) to battle fellow Brit James DeGale.
Yet McCracken remains confident.
“Nothing has been confirmed yet, but we are in talks about Carl fighting Julio Cesar Chavez Jr,” McCracken says. “Until we know what is happening there, obviously everything else is secondary.”
Sky Sports reports that Froch is back in the gym after scoring a career defining knockout over antagonist George Groves in an English mega-bout last spring.
Although he lost the Super Six Tournament to Andre Ward in 2011, Froch has still reached legendary status in Europe while impressing serious American boxing followers in the process by fighting the top names in his divsion.
What’s more, he and Chavez Jr have huge fan bases.
Last year’s Froch-Groves rematch was absolutely enormous in Britain and Chavez Jr’s last fight, a rematch against American Brian Vera, brought in serious numbers for HBO. In other words, both men deliver the goods from a financial standpoint.
Indeed, Froch wants a huge fight, in Las Vegas, before he ends his career (the man is 37, after all).
“He’s talking about one, possibly two fights,” McCracken says, “but we will take it one step at a time.”
McCracken makes it clear, though, that Froch isn’t ready to hang up the gloves yet.
“He will definitely fight again,” says McCracken, “and hopefully it will be against Chavez in a big Vegas fight.”