Last week, promoter Frank Warren, speaking with IFL TV, spoke of how Carl Froch wanted nothing to do with Joe Calzaghe. This often-debated fight, forever confined to Dream Fight status due to Froch and Calzaghe never hooking up in the 2000s, remains a fan favourite when it comes to arguing over who would have won and how. But Warren said last week that the fight failing to happen was down to Froch and Froch alone.
“Carl, I’m going to remind you now. You met me in the polo lounge of the Westbury Hotel and brought down your financial advisor, and we were trying to make the Joe Calzaghe fight,” said Warren, who promoted Calzaghe at the time. “The fight everybody wanted to see at the time – apart from you. All you kept talking about was, ‘Is he going to go up in weight? When’s he going up in weight?’ Because you didn’t want to fight him, Carl. And let me remind you about something else – did you know Tyson (Fury) sold 94,000 tickets at Wembley?”
Warren’s final line came as a form of response to the criticism Froch has been hurling at Fury recently (criticism some fans feel is justified), but the main crux of the article here is the subject of whether or not Froch did avoid Calzaghe. Froch has taken to social media to inform Warren that nothing could be further from the truth.
I was mandatory for the WBC which JC was holding. He vacated rather than fight me, pretty simple really. Old fish eyes has lost his fooking marbles. He needs saving from himself 🤦🏻♂️🤣🤣
— Carl Froch MBE (@Carl_Froch) June 30, 2023
“I was mandatory for the WBC, which JC (Joe Calzaghe) was holding. He vacated rather than fight me, pretty simple, really. Old fish eyes have lost his f*****g marbles. He needs saving from himself,” Froch wrote.
It is true that Calzaghe, closing in on the end of a fantastic career, opted to move up in weight, with him having career finales against Bernard Hopkins and Roy Jones Junior, both fights taking place at 175 pounds. So, when Froch was asking Warren when Joe was moving up in weight, it seems the mandatory challenger for Calzaghe’s WBC super-middleweight title was concerned that Calzaghe would move up. It seems Froch was concerned that Joe would choose a light-heavyweight run over a fight with him, which is what the Welshman did do.
This is not to say Calzaghe ducked Froch – in 2008, Froch was still an emerging star, nothing like as big as Hopkins and Jones. Also, fans had been urging Calzaghe to box in the US for some time, which he did in his final two fights – but Froch for sure didn’t duck Calzaghe. Froch fought Jean Pascal for the vacant belt this in December of 2008, while Calzaghe fought Hopkins in April of that year.
Chalk this up as a victory by Froch over Warren. Not that it means too much. Bottom line: the ring careers of Froch and Calzaghe never overlapped, the two men being at their peak at different times. Neither man ducked the other.