35-year-old Danish fighter Mikkel Kessler (46-3, 35 KOs) says he’s waiting by the phone to get a call from IBF/WBA super middleweight champion Carl Froch (33-2, 24 KOs) to be his next opponent on January 31st next year in a fight that would be staged in London. Froch’s promoter Eddie Hearn is saying that he’s looking to match the 37-year-old Froch against either Kessler or James DeGale, Froch’s IBF mandatory challenger.
“I am sitting by the phone, hoping something is going to happen soon – I want a decider with Carl,” Kessler said to Ringside.
The problem with matching Froch against Kessler is that it’s a fight that some boxing fans would see as a rip-off considering that Kessler hasn’t fought since May of 2013 when he was beaten by Froch.
Kessler has been out of the ring for 17 months, and by the time he’d get back in the ring to fight Froch in January of next year, Kessler would have been out of action for 20 months. We’re almost talking 2 years. Kessler is no longer ranked in the top 15 at super middleweight due to his inactivity.
Hearn would obviously make the Froch-Kessler 3 fight a pay-per-view match in the UK, and that would be a tough ask given the amount of time that Kessler has been out of action. If Froch gives Kessler a title shot off of a 2 year layoff in a fight that is PPV, it would be rewarding Kessler for his inactivity.
In a sport where fighters are expected to earn their title shots, Kessler would be getting one based on him doing nothing, and that would be off putting to some boxing fans. The fight would look like a cash out fight for Kessler at the expense of the British boxing public.
Froch has the option of defending his title against his mandatory challenger James DeGale, who clearly has earned his title shot after beating Brandon Gonzales. But Froch doesn’t seem too excited about facing DeGale despite the fact that he’s done what he’s supposed to do by staying busy instead of sitting on the sidelines for 20 months, hoping that he’d get a call from Froch.