With former super-middleweight king Carl Froch now happily retired and, having just had a nose job done, in no mood to return to the rigors of the ring, a fight between Froch and Gennady Golovkin is confined to the Dream Fight stakes. But what a great fight it may well have been; almost definitely would have been. Had GGG stepped up (in weight, not in class of opposition) to fight “The Cobra” a couple of years or so ago (a fight that was seriously looked into), and had he fought the way he did against Kell Brook on Saturday night, we would almost certainly have witnessed a brutal war.
Who would have won? With his lack of head movement and his willingness to go into the trenches and slug it out (“I’m crazy, I like to street fight,” GGG said himself at the post-fight presser in London), Triple-G would have had his chin tested by Froch, that much seems clear. But Froch’s beard would also have been hit, frequently – and perhaps harder than at any time in his long career. Who would have been taken out, or would the war have gone down to the wire, very possibly taking plenty out of both men?
Froch spoke with IFL TV after the GGG-Brook fight had ended and the British legend made it clear he has no doubts he would have beaten GGG had the two met at 168-pounds.
“I’m going to upset the boxing world now and say that if that was me in there tonight with Golovkin, I would have beat him,” Froch said. “I’m telling you now, I’m not even joking, [at] super-middleweight, the amount of people that’s told me that tonight – I would have had height, reach, size, weight, strength. I said it aged ago, didn’t I? Too big, too strong.”
Froch was always a confident warrior, entering any fight believing he would get the win. Would the Froch that was beating the likes of Mikkel Kessler and George Groves have been capable of taking down The Golovkin Express? Or would Froch’s record of never having been stopped have disappeared had he tangled with the GGG of a couple of years ago?
We will never know, but it really is quite a thought wondering. Perhaps an absolute boxing classic got away from us. GGG looked human, his critics have correctly stated when assessing his performance against bulked up welterweight Brook. Would Froch have made the unbeaten middleweight ruler look even less supernatural? Timing is everything in boxing, especially when it comes to making the great, great fights. What a pity Froch was already eyeing retirement when the Golovkin fight was being dangled in front of him.