Froch says Degale is ahead of Golovkin

38-year-old former super middleweight champion Carl Froch has yet to make up his mind regarding his retirement. Froch has been inactive since last May's knockout victory over George Groves before 80,000 fans at Wembley Stadium.

Froch vacated both of his super middleweight titles, under the WBA and IBF, earlier this year.

Olympic gold medal winner James DeGale picked up the vacant IBF belt in May with a twelve round decision win over Andre Dirrell, who nearly derailed Froch several years ago in the Super Six tournament.

For months, Froch had expressed the desire to potential face middleweight king Gennady Golovkin - if The Cobra decided to fight again. Now it appears that DeGale is the preferred choice.

"I think it's James DeGale or it's Gennady Golovkin," Froch said to reporter Steve Bunce. "Probably in that order. If they called up tomorrow and said we've got the DeGale fight and we think it will sell Wembley, and they start being reasonable with the split they're looking for then maybe."

"But all of a sudden now he's champion, he's getting a bit unrealistic about how much he's worth and I don't need to be listening to that silly talk and bowing down to anyone who thinks they may be the next big thing.

"At the end of the day people get excited when I box and I always bring a big following with me because I always leave it all in the ring. So it all needs to be right before I accept any fight."

Does anyone in boxing speak as much waffle as this guy? He changes his tune on a daily basis. He vacated his title and dismissed Degale as not being worthy consistenlty and now that Golovkin is available and willing to move up to his division and face him in England he pulls this crap. Take a fight or retire.

Starting to think Froch is doing a Haye......No intention of coming back but keeping his name out there......

Degale slaps him and any chance he has against the smaller GGG is going down the crapper too...

P**S or get off the pot.....

Agree with Truss about Froch wanting to keep his name alive. Can't see him fighting again, just stirring the pot. Always came across as a man who craves validation, just let it go Carl. You've done enough, have a rest.

When I see the Slimester Froch in the ring with one of these pair then I'll believe it

Both will beat him anyway

Still not a fan Steffan?

Dirrell was Poopie scared of both Froch and Abraham yet was starting to take the front foot against DeGale I think that tells us something about DeGale's power.

70/30 in Froch's favour for me against DeGale, 65/35 at a push.

Golovkin should force a fight with Froch by beating someone at super middle. That fight can wait.

Froch has no intention of fighting Degale. If he did, he'd have boxed him when JD was his IBF mandatory. All this talk about James getting above his station, etc. Degale is the champ now, like it or not. He has the belt, he won it in the ring beating Dirrell, more convincingly than Froch did, in Dirrell's own backyard.

Completely agree that Froch wants his name out there and is making noises purely for publicity. I like Froch, one of my favourite fighters in recent years, but he doesn't half talk a load of nonsense sometimes!

Herman Jaeger wrote:Dirrell was Poopie scared of both Froch and Abraham yet was starting to take the front foot against DeGale I think that tells us something about DeGale's power.

70/30 in Froch's favour for me against DeGale, 65/35 at a push.

Golovkin should force a fight with Froch by beating someone at super middle. That fight can wait.

Dirrell remember was outboxing Froch using stick and move tactics. Was unlucky with the judging.

So it's ok in your book to purposefully fall to your knees to avoid  in-fighting?

So now you are condoning cheating Strongy?


I'm disappointed. I thought better of you. Mind you , you did say you were a fan of Alex Salmond.

mobilemaster8 wrote:Still not a fan Steffan?

I'm allergic to slime unfortunately

TRUSSMAN66 wrote:Starting to think Froch is doing a Haye......No intention of coming back but keeping his name out there......

Degale slaps him and any chance he has against the smaller GGG is going down the crapper too...

P**S or get off the pot.....

Agree with Truss, the will I wont I saga has become tedious now, first it was Las Vegas now must be a Wembley sell out fight (bar Ward whom he must fight in Nottingham)

Cheers, Rodders

The way Degale faded vs Dirrell I wouldn't be so sure he beats Froch. GGG is in a different league to both.

Rodney wrote:

TRUSSMAN66 wrote:Starting to think Froch is doing a Haye......No intention of coming back but keeping his name out there......

Degale slaps him and any chance he has against the smaller GGG is going down the crapper too...

P**S or get off the pot.....

Agree with Truss, the will I wont I saga has become tedious now, first it was Las Vegas now must be a Wembley sell out fight (bar Ward whom he must fight in Nottingham)

Cheers, Rodders

Yeah that's a good point actually. Just proves Froch is talking wet about making a comeback. Needs to pipe down.

Thing is though that Froch/DeGale would sell at Wembley whereas Froch/Ward would do better business in Nottingham.

These are just the facts.

Herman Jaeger wrote:Thing is though that Froch/DeGale would sell at Wembley whereas Froch/Ward would do better business in Nottingham.

These are just the facts.

Pass me some of that Cobra logic juice!

Haha, certainly will do Dipper.

Appreciate that your a fan, Herman. But don't you think Froch's constant moving of the goalposts re: his opponents indicates that he has no real intention of fighting again?

Will only fight in Vegas one minute, then Nottingham, then another Wembley fight.

Don't see why he needs the validation of the boxing fans or journalists by keeping his name in the mix . For me, he's done enough. Had his time in the sun, why not go off and enjoy retirement and leave boxing to the active boxers?

He's nowhere near Haye's level of irritating, mind.

I don't know Dipper, I have a feeling we haven't seen the last of Carl Froch yet, in fact I think he has a performance or two left in him, just think he's looking for the right deal. He can hold out as long as he likes for me.

Two more shifts and he could go down as somewhere near the the best we've seen from these shores in thirty years or more.

How long do Froch and Hearn think that the fans will be happy to keep stroking Froch's ego and lap up all this contradictory, WWE-style stuff about who he will / won't be fighting, where the imaginary fights have to be, whether it's going to be Golovkin, Degale or someone else etc? Getting seriously tedious now and it feel as if it's just become a game to them now. Great servant to the sport with a record which massively outshines both Golovkin's and Degale's as things stand, but that's no justification for giving the pair of them the runaround. Froch probably won't be too bothered, but I think even some of his die-hard fans have had enough of it now.

Appreciate that deciding whether or not to walk away from the sport is a tough decision, and that Froch has more than earned the right to give it all due consideration without being rushed, but if that's the case just keep it buttoned until you've actually got something concrete to say instead of all these stupid publicity stunts which exist purely so Froch can still be talked about without fighting.

I picked against Froch for the Groves rematch and got stung for it, so maybe that shapes my thinking here to some degree, but if a Degale fight did happen I think I'd have to go with Carl. I think based on what we've seen with our own eyes of both men to this point, Froch would need to drop about 10-15% from his former level and Degale would need to improve about 10-15% from his for Degale to win it. Both things are possible though, what with Froch's long layoff and age as well as Degale's recent upwards curve in terms of confidence and attitude which, in theory, should continue now that he has the mental edge of being a champion himself.

Degale picked up an impressive and deserved win against a very good opponent in Dirrell, but judging by that fight he still hasn't ironed out that tendency to have lulls and drift in and out of fights for two or three rounds at a time. If there's one Super-Middleweight who has shown that he's the man to take advantage of that kind of tendency, it's Froch. He say's he'd have suited the old days of fifteen rounders perfectly, and I believe him. Degale with his unorthodoxy and great defence from the Dirrell fight is a nightmare opponent for Froch in theory but I'd take Froch's record, durability and heavier hands as the reassuring factors in that one, unless of course his inactivity blunted him, which is possible.

It's a lovely little clash of styles Chris, DeGale coming in on a high from his terrific away win off Dirrell, could the Cobra bring him crashing back down to earth and leave him with a very sore head!

Froch smashes Degale sideways. Degale simply can't fight for a full 12 rounds, heck even Dirrell was pushing him back on the front foot and you seldom hear anyone say that.

Froch wears him down to a late stoppage. Can't believe some who thinks Degale stands much chance, his inactive "go in to his shell" style is pretty much absolutely custom made for Froch. Yes he'll win rounds with his speed and flashy work but as he's proven time and again he doesn't have the tank to do it for the full 12 rounds and so his workrate is mediocre at best.

The biggest fight that I want to see is Froch Golovkin, that is one hell of a fight.

Either one will do, but really hope he opts for Golovkin, Froch never ducks away from a challenge

I love how age is irrelevant on these threads............

Apparently Cotto has got 12 hard rounds left in him.............Froch has been out for nearly 18 months and has 12 hard rounds in them...........

Of course Manny and May are still in their primes.........

The legs and tank are the first things to go......

Froch lands one or he loses..

I am getting bored of the whole Froch thing he is becoming like Haye, if he ever came back he loses after being out so long, he will not come back however, he just craves the attention

wheelchair1991 wrote:I am getting bored of the whole Froch thing he is becoming like Haye, if he ever came back he loses after being out so long, he will not come back however, he just craves the attention

At least Froch fought the best and gave it a go when he did so rather than just being all mouth.

Pretty sure Leonard didn't exactly sit in a retirement home when he was out of the game.

After the run of fights he's had I'm prepared to give him a bit more leeway than some it seems. If he were to rock up and sign to fight GGG then these same people would suddenly go quiet. Not sure why any fighter who hasn't officially retired wouldn't keep himself in the public domain? Seems like sensible business to me.

Doubt Froch DeGale would sell out Wembley.

Herman Jaeger wrote:Dirrell was Poopie scared of both Froch and Abraham yet was starting to take the front foot against DeGale I think that tells us something about DeGale's power.
.

Hmmm. Which of them dumped Dirrell on his 'arris' and in real trouble? Dirrell finished the fight strongly against mr 'championship rounds' froch and lost the last two rounds to degale.

Froch and Abraham carry more power than DeGale. Neither could land the peach that DeGale managed to, however, or get as close to Dirrell as James managed (disregarding Abraham's cheap shot) as both are much slower and more agricultural in their approach.

I don't believe Froch ever intended to fight GGG. It was an attempt by Hearn to call his bluff and now Golovkin's team have allegedly suggested a catch weight, it gives Froch an easy "out" on that one. Froch doesn't need Golovkin for his retirement fight - talk about an exploding cake.

Froch and Hearn are looking for another Wembley event but I'm not sure DeGale offers them that. Yet.

I'm amazed they haven't thrown a stack of money at Calzaghe. That would fill it!

Matchroom really want the Golovkin or Degale fights to come off. They have been trying coax Froch into taking them. They know Froch is close to reitiring and they want to get any big fight they can out of him.

hazharrison wrote:Froch and Abraham carry more power than DeGale. Neither could land the peach that DeGale managed to, however, or get as close to Dirrell as James managed (disregarding Abraham's cheap shot) as both are much slower and more agricultural in their approach.

I don't believe Froch ever intended to fight GGG. It was an attempt by Hearn to call his bluff and now Golovkin's team have allegedly suggested a catch weight, it gives Froch an easy "out" on that one. Froch doesn't need Golovkin for his retirement fight - talk about an exploding cake.

Froch and Hearn are looking for another Wembley event but I'm not sure DeGale offers them that. Yet.

I'm amazed they haven't thrown a stack of money at Calzaghe. That would fill it!

I'm aware of that haz. Laughable to say Dirrell didn't respect degale's power when degale had him in desperate trouble... He was forced into the front foot because he was playing catch up.

I think froch has called out Calzaghe again... For a street fight. Classy.

Herman Jaeger wrote:Dirrell was Poopie scared of both Froch and Abraham yet was starting to take the front foot against DeGale I think that tells us something about DeGale's power.

You mean when Degale put Dirrell down twice in round two and nearly stopped him where the other chaps did not? Im confused.

I cant see Froch fighting Degale but if he does I think Degale wins.

People keep saying that Degale tired and that seems to be the only reason he would lose, Well yes he did tire but it was not as if he was gassed, he was still moving on his feet. What you are forgetting is that Dirrell is lightning quick and accurate and is also a great athlete, He did not catch Degale much, in 2 or 3 rounds he started to land a few combinations but nothing too clean on Degale and when he did Degale took it quite well.

Now Froch is much slower than Dirrell, and if Degale can move away from Dirrell and not get hit when he is tired, then I think he can do the same against a slower Froch where he simply will not be using as much energy to defend against.

And Degale won the last 2 rounds in my book so he cant have been that Gassed.

I see Degale taking a UD. Froch knows Groves gave him a really hard time and he knows Degale certainly wont be any easier so I'm still not sure it will happen.