WBA World Super Middleweight Champion Carl Froch is looking to take on Julio Cesar Chavez Jr in Las Vegas, preferably before the end of the year. Froch, now 37 years old but still considered the best pound for pound fighter in England right now, is looking for one last big fight before he retires. And if he has his way, it will be under the bright lights of the Vegas strip, a gig Froch has not played in his stellar 33-2 career.
Froch’s desire for one big fight is the reason he is calling out Chavez. The second generation Mexican star is a big draw and a date in Vegas would assure Froch of going out with the big fight he wants. Froch has stated in the British media that he is contemplating retirement should this fight fall through.
It is interesting that of all the draws out there, Froch has chosen to call out Chavez, who is perhaps the easiest of the ‘big fight’ options out there available to Froch. A re-match with Andre Ward, to who m he lost, could potentially be done, but Ward is hard to deal with and not known as a big fight draw, especially outside of Oakland.
Then there is Gennady Golovkin, who is beginning to own New York and is looking to de-throne Miguel Cotto as the hometown fighter at legendary Madison Square Garden, but those gigs in Atlantic City and Connecticut for Froch earlier in his career must have been enough to satiate the hunger to perform in NYC on the world’s biggest boxing stage. Or could it have been the onslaught of the bludgeoning Golovkin that cooled Froch to the idea.
You can’t blame Froch for looking for a fight that motivates him, and for not wanting to continue fighting in England, where he has done it all. He would be a betting favorite over Julio Cesar Chavez Jr, who is 48-1-1 overall in his career but has looked unmotivated in the ring and has experienced adversity outside of it. Chavez has had trouble making the weight of 160 (Middleweight) in the past, so he may be more suited to the SUper Middleweight division, however jumping in against Froch for his first big outing there may be more than the Mexican wants to sign up for.