It would be ironical if Bute actually caught Stevenson first and won. It's not like Stevenson doesn't have it coming. Not likely to happen though.
not as apparent as your dislike for froch, so let's not spread the hate. froch needs to make a decision on his future, but claiming he's holding the belt hostage because he's been given an extension by the governing body is a bit of a stretch in this day and age. there's nothing mysterious about athletes getting injured.
I'm criticizing Froch for stalling with making his decision because it's preventing an important fight from happening (which is either DeGale vs Froch or DeGale vs Dirrell). There's no problem if he wants to fight whoever he wants next, but if it's not DeGale, just drop the belt already so the things can keep going. He also most recently stated that he will wait for Chavez, so it's clear that he's not planning to fight DeGale next, right? There's nothing mysterious about athletes getting injured. However, if he suddenly gets injured the same day as Chavez announced that he will fight Fonfara next, then proceeds to state that he is willing to wait for Chavez, that it's obvious that something is wrong. And I would have taken the same stance whether it was Dirrell, Ward, Kessler or whoever else doing this, because it's obviously not right.
you think he announced his injury the moment he sustained it? ward hasn't fought a mando in years and is 14 months inactive, froch fought 2 in a row and is 8. you ain't holding him to the same standard.
To be honest I'm not sure what to think because the whole injury situation is suspicious. If Froch tries to keep the belt without fighting then the whole injury thing is shady, because he was basically cornered to either fight DeGale or vacate. It's very hard to give him the benefit of the doubt under those circumstances. As for Ward, his "mandatory" is the regular WBA titlist, which is actually Carl Froch. I have no idea why the WBA never enforced the match, but considering that the champion (Andre Ward) would be given the bigger percentage of the purse, Froch would probably rather vacate the title in that scenario. Ward has also been through the legal disputes over the past 2 or so years, so I guess that he has the right to take a tune-up fight, but after that he definitely has the obligation to go for the other top guys and clean out the division (which means fighting DeGale and Dirrell brothers).
froch seems to have already retired mentally , could well be faking the injury he needs to a decision im fine with the chavez fight but its not the be all and end all i dont get why hes so into it, id love to see him fight hopkins or ggg. Mainly though id like to see him try and get ward
According to Eddie Hearn, DeGale vs. Dirrell is possible for April 25th for the vacant IBF title in O2 Arena, London.
STOP PRESS! AGEING ATHELETE IN BRUTAL SPORT INJURY SHOCKER! at least you as good as admit you hold him to a different standard.
After the awful running/acting performances he gave us against the only two live bodies he's fought (Froch and Abraham), and after blatantly ducking Andre Ward, why on Earth does anyone still care about Andre Dirrell??? He is a complete fraud. He should have fought so many top-level opponents until now, but he's been hiding and ducking. He's trying to convince a big name champion to fight him, so he can make a big payday and then disappear forever from the sport. He's not a real professional boxer. He's too afraid of getting hurt.
To be fair, Andre Ward never entered the training camp for the Dirrell fight either, so it kind of implies that both boxers already knew in advance that they weren't going to fight each other. The current "big name" champions at SMW right now are Froch, Ward and Abraham. I'm not too convinced that he'd just show up for a payday without actually going for the win. Ward is probably the only one that would be favored to beat him, although he's been very inactive recently, so you never know. I agree that he should've fought many top opponents instead of just going into the inactivity, but it is what it is. At least he's back now and his next fight could very possibly be a world title fight against DeGale.
Seems like Froch has finally decided to vacate. Looks like DeGale vs. Dirrell is next for the vacant IBF title.