If back in 2007 someone told you carl froch

I remember the first full Froch fight I watched was his title shot with Pascal on ITV. I thought it was a stirring effort, and Froch could maybe have a decent reign defending his alphabet belt, but I'd never have seen him hitting the verge of many people's top 10 pound for pound lists for going abroad, taking on and in most cases beating the very best in his division.

I just thought he was a mite too slow, too open and slightly clumsy. As we all know now, he's far better than that.

 

Yep.

I always thought there as something special about him. Around the Magee fight was when it really hit me. Ironically that was fight Watt was crucifying him in every round.

 

Remember Watt being very critical of his low left!

 

Yeah he said something about Froch having to get back in the gymnasium or he would come a cropper at the highest level.

 

Ive watched Froch's whole career,from the days he was on BBC and i just didnt get the hype,thought he was easy to hit,had an amature style and his power was overrated,never thought he would be a world champ,but when he beat Pascal i thought he would do ok but never as good as he did,he is now one of the best British fighters ever,i think he has surpassed Ricky Hatton..

 

He's very, very overrated.

 

But if we think about why this is the case, that we as a boxing public probably underrated him...its quite reasonable to have drawn that conclusion before he really proved himself.

He's not one of those flashy, aesthetically pleasing, super talented guys that you can look at against domestic/European level guys and think that he's definitely going to go far. A lot of what makes him good is hard to determine from a viewers perspective. You can't really get a sense of his awkwardness, his strength, his almost plodding/thudding power. You just see a guy looking a bit cumbersome/unusual that is getting by without ever wowing you. It's only when that translates to beating names that he's really going to get recognition and you start to analyze why he's had the success.

 

i think he arrived in an era of flashy names and marquee fighters like hatton etc, so had his work cut out to make a name for himself. fighters nowadays arrive and there is little rivalry as there are no big names about.

his legacy leaves hatton, calzage etc in the shade for me - the fights have been excellent and i can watch them again and again unlike some of his peers stuff which were infinitely boring 12 rd affairs with no blood or guts.

 

I felt he'd win a world title, didn't think he'd win 3 world titles and go on the run he has.

 

Up until the Kessler fight he seemed to just do enough to win but the defeat to Kessler made him pull his finger out. He boxed the perfect fight v Abraham, won clearly against Johnson I had it 118-110 not a draw like that Japanese judge, he was beaten by the best boxer in the world in my opinion in Andre Ward but came back and demolished Bute. If the Kessler fight had been now he'd of pulled out the fight due to ash cloud but back in 2010 before the Kessler fight he thought he was terminator or something. He basically thought he could beat anyone without the full preparation and against Kessler he wasn't 100% he was 90% at the most. The fight went like I thought it would do up until round 8 but I was expecting Froch's fitness, stamina and heart to come through in rounds 9,10,11 and 12 but ultimately because his preperation had suffered due to the ash cloud he wasn't good enough on talent alone to beat Kessler in Denmark. If they fought now he'd beat Kessler fairly comfortabley.

 

Great post.

Some fighters won't blow lesser guys out of the water but will still do well against elite fighters.

 

I'd draw a comparison between Froch and Steve Collins. Who do you tend to remember from that era? It's Eubank, Benn then Watson (sadly for other reasons).

Not so often do you hear mention of the solid, tough, uncompromising and unflashy Collins. Collins was a lot more orthodox than Froch but there is something to be said for the aesthetically less 'pleasing' guys simply getting less attention/acknowledgement and it takes them a lot longer to reach those things.

 

What struck me with Froch was his stance and general fighting style. He looked threatening and 'leery', as he might say, all the time in the ring and that had an intangible effect on the psyche of his opponent. They could never feel comfortable in there with him. His perceived weakness ended up being his biggest strength.