I've no idea. Some of the signs aren't particularly positive - he's talked of retirement at a young age, he's stayed with a promoter who is quite clearly on the way out.... It's the classic FW fighter's tactic, Hatton and Calzaghe did the same. Ricky wasn't even British champion before he was name dropping, Frank only made the fight because he knew that Hatton was off if he didn't. Turned out Hatton walked anyway for other reasons.
2-3 years ago I would favour Hopkins but Froch has to much for him now. Hopkins has enough to beat C level fighters but not a guy like Froch. Cloud & Pascal still won at least 4 rounds when they faced Hopkins so Froch is more than capable of winning 7. Start at the pace he set against Bute and keep it going an eventually Hopkins 49 year old body will fall apart.
I think Cleverly would fight anybody but he is being held back. I still beleive he could be a serious talent.
One good thing that would come out of it is Cleverly finally seeing the light in terms of his career and prime years trickling down the u-bend. There's only so long a big fight can be talked about without any movement ever occuring on it. Always thought there's only one fight Hopkins was really serious about in terms of coming to the UK and that was a Calzaghe rematch. Although it may depend on the success of the Froch-Kessler ppv; Hopkins wouldn't command a ppv date anymore in the US and he is a businessman after all. Have always seen Froch as loathe to go above 168 too though. As for the fight, gut feeling says that it is all wrong for Froch. Understand what people say that Hopkins may not last through a sustained barrage, but it's the nature of the the attack that counts with somebody like Hopkins. Froch isn't going to be able to walk straight at Hopkins no matter how old he is like he did with Bute, where Froch basically smashed up a rabbit in the headlights. To get Hopkins out of his comfort zone and working at a pace he doesn't like you have to very good footwork that won't allow him to settle on any kind of range, a variety of output that keeps him guessing and the ability to keep tha pace up for the whole fight. Froch is fit enough to do the latter, but don't see him possessing the first two qualities. Calzaghe ticked all of those boxes and it was still a horrible fight. Question will be how much Hopkins has aged since then. And you can see why Hopkins would fancy Froch. Style-wise he would see it as being closer to a Pavlik than a Calzaghe.
Would be a great fight but I'm not sure how Froch would perform at light-heavy, he seems perfectly suited to 168.