No WBC title for Carl Froch
Having lost his WBA super-middleweight strap to Mikkel Kessler in April, Carl Froch was hoping to administer an immediate rebuttal by defeating Arthur Abraham and claiming back his awol title.
However the boxing body today announced that instead of being the prize for the Englishman and the German it will be contested by the two Andre’s, Andre Ward and Andre Dirrell.
“The Great Dane’s” tenure as the WBC titlist was short lived. He relinquished his belt after withdrawing from the Super Six Word Boxing Classic in August and it was expected to go the way of Messers Froch and Abraham, instead in a surprise move it has gone the other way and Frochs clash becomes an eliminator fight.
This is a massive disappointment for “The Cobra” who needs to win to qualify for the next round. Froch had two successful defences of the title he won in 2008, with a victory over Jean Pascal he then suffered his first ever professional loss which came against Kessler in a gritty war.
It doesn’t make a great deal of sense giving the belt to the Andre’s with Froch’s fight with Abraham coming on October 2nd, while Ward and Direll have yet to name a date. Plus Ward already holds the WBA belt so it’s just going to combine the two titles.
There is no denying that Ward’s is the main man of the tournament so far. “The Son Of God” is the form fighter, but Dirrell lacks credentials, he was beaten by Froch and only beat Abraham by way of a strange disqualification. Meanwhile Abraham and Froch have just one defeat each, both coming in their last fights and you have to say it would be the higher calibre fight as a whole.
This all makes you wonder where Allan Green stands? It seems more and more likely that Kessler won’t be replaced and these two fights will represent the semi-finals of a competition which is disintegrating by the minute.
The tournament started as a great idea, had some great fights, careers made and broken but now it is falling apart at the seams and should probably be wrapped up. The winner is set to face Kessler anyway so in theory he has been given a passage straight to the final.
The way Froch views this tournament hangs in the balance. He nicked a bizarre match against Dirrell in his opening gambit before losing to Kessler by unanimous decision. Froch cried hometown decision and talked of quitting the game, but eventually stayed. He was pleased to hear that he takes Abraham on in neutral territory but needs to win to save his career, no easy task against the excellent German.
So there is no title for The Cobra to fight for and he must be spitting venom about that. He will need to go beat Abraham and put a case in for his WBC title or slither off home.
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