23.02.07 – Carl Froch hopes that defeating Russia’s Sergey Tatevosyan on the Hennessy Sports ‘Cobra’s Hood’ event on March 23rd will help him secure a world title shot by the end of the year. The unbeaten British and Commonwealth super-middleweight champion, (20-0, 16 knock-outs), will face Tatevosyan in a 12-round international fight at championship weight in front of his home fans at the Nottingham Arena, live on Sky Sports..
Froch, 29, is ranked third by the WBC and fifth by the IBF and WBO world governing bodies and hopes beating Tatevosyan will help earn him a final eliminator for a world title.
Froch’s promoter Mick Hennessy aims to land Froch a world title shot this year. The unbeaten domestic champion would love it to be against WBO king Joe Calzaghe.
“Beating Tatevosyan would be a good step towards an eliminator for a world title which I hope to have after this,” said Carl.
“I’m high up in most of the rankings, but Calzaghe is the one I’m interested in. I don’t know who would be the harder fight – Calzaghe or WBC champion Kessler, but maybe Kessler would be the tougher.
“Calzaghe is towards the end of his career and I would just question his desire. If he has to fight me because I become his mandatory challenger, I think he would rather give up the belt because of the type of man he is. It could be a big money fight with a lot of interest.”
Southpaw Tatevosyan, has operated at the top level for some time now and in his last fight took highly-ranked Canadian-based Lucian Bute to points for the WBO Inter-Continental Super-Middleweight Title.
“He took Bute 12 rounds and Bute is rated above me. If I can do a better job on Tatevosyan than he did, it will cement my place in the world rankings,” Froch added.
Froch’s promoter Mick Hennessy is convinced the Nottingham boxer is the future star of British boxing and that Tatevosyan is the correct opponent to keep the momentum of his career going.
He said: “Tatevosyan is highly ranked by the governing bodies and is very durable. Only the elite fighters have beaten him and he has been known to burst a few bubbles.
“He knocked out danger man Rudy Markussen in seven rounds last year and in 2002 he knocked out former world champion Armand Kranjc. Kranjc had only lost his WBO title in the fight before, on points to Harry Simon so that is a very strong form line. Tatevosyan also holds a win over current European champion David Gogiya. He will be very difficult for Carl.
“But Carl is the best super-middleweight in the world right now and will be too strong for him. He oozes natural talent and would take any of the champions out – Kessler or Calzaghe.
“Carl’s within firing range of all the title holders now. I am looking to try and get him a world title fight by the end of this year.”