Photo by Tom Casino / Showtime – At the age of 30, Carl Froch is a six-year pro. The WBC’s number-one ranked contender and mandatory challenger at 168 pounds, he is undefeated in 22 fights and has won his last six fights by knockout. Carl was originally scheduled to fight Denis Inkin in a WBC super middleweight final eliminator on March 29, but Inkin became ill and the fight was postponed.. The fight was rescheduled for this date, and when Inkin pulled out again, the WBC voted unanimously to make Carl the mandatory challenger at 168 pounds.
But Inkin’s pullout could still be something of a setback. If Carl had become mandatory challenger by beating Inkin in a final eliminator and WBC champion Joe Calzaghe then vacated the title – which many observers expect him to do, and continue to fight at light heavyweight – Carl would have become world champion. According to WBC rules, if a final eliminator is fought and the title is then vacated, the winner of the final eliminator becomes world champion. Now, if Carl wins this fight and Calzaghe vacates, Carl would get to fight the next highest available contender for the vacant title.
Carl is coming off a win against his biggest “name” opponent in his last fight in November, 2007 – a fifth-round TKO against former WBC super middleweight world champion Robin Reid. After the fight, Reid announced his retirement. Froch floored Reid three times (2nd, 3rd, 5th) in a tremendous performance.
[ESPN.com wrote]: Froch has been calling out Joe Calzaghe for ages, but probably won’t ever get the fight. Calzaghe is looking only for mega-fights at this stage of his career. Froch, who is talented and would be a worthy challenger, is unknown outside of England and would certainly not qualify as that level of a fight for the super middleweight king. It is quite possible that if Calzaghe moves up to light heavyweight, as many expect, Froch would get a chance to fight for one of his vacant belts…. [End ESPN.com item]
Carl said, “I was training in Tenerife for a couple of weeks for the first Inkin fight before it was postponed. As soon as I got back to England, I got the news that Inkin pulled out, and I took about eight days off. At that time, I went into a health spa with my girlfriend for a relaxing four or five days, away from home, away from everything – have a bit of a steam and a sauna, and a bit of a swim – mentally switched off. Then I heard the fight was re-scheduled, and right back into the gym – back down to London, back down to the grind. It is getting a little monotonous now – kind of a ‘Groundhog Day’ – but I’m ready. I’m ready. [note: interview on Apr. 21, before Inkin’s second pullout]
“I hope to give you a good show and win this world title and take it from there. I mean, Calzaghe, after the other night, I think he’ll be finished after he fights one more. I wasn’t impressed with that performance, but there you go. Hopkins makes it difficult, doesn’t he?
“The reason I went over there to Tenerife was to try it out. After I win this fight, I’m going to be involved in world title fights and I wanted to test out a different sort of camp. I wanted to see what Tenerife was like, because a friend of mine knows the guy who owns the gym. It’s very exclusive and private when you get out there.
“Also, I wanted to get out of the freezing cold of winter in England, ‘cause it was like the end of January, the beginning of February, working towards the end of March. It was very cold in February.
“It was good. Two weeks out there was very beneficial. I was out running on the mountain, doing altitude training, and I was in the gym every day, eating correct. It was brilliant.
“The weather in England is just starting to improve. All of a sudden, it seems like the sun has come out and it’s just warmed up a bit.
“I’m training at the Real Fight Club on Liverpool Street in London. I use my motorbike to get around. It’s not ideal, but it gets me there. It takes me 20 minutes to get to the gym – it would probably be an hour and half in a car. That’s the main reason.
“I’ve been doing a lot of sparring with the current Commonwealth middleweight champion, Darren Barker. He’s very technically proficient. Also Matthew Thirlwell, he’s a middleweight. I’ve also got Tony Oakey here, he’s a light heavyweight. He’s coming next week and we’ll see how it goes with him.
“My own style, I’m very elusive. I’m tricky, I’m unorthdox. Early on, starting out, I used to be a big fan of Naseem Hamed. I know he came over to America and got annihilated by Marco Barrera. I was at ringside for that fight – I saved up and flew out there with a couple of my friends. I lost a load of money on him. But Roy Jones Jr. and Sugar Ray I’ve always been inspired by, and I’ve always enjoyed that sort of entertaining-type style.
“I’ve got a very elusive jab – I jab from the waist. My left arm is very low, I’ve got like, a low-held guard. I’m naturally righthanded. I use my right glove very effectively. A lot of people say I look like the old ‘Motor City Cobra.’
“In my 90 fights as an amateur, I’ve never been down. In 22 fights as a professional, I’ve never been down. I’ve never been hurt, to be honest – I’ve got what they call a granite chin. That’s always helpful in this game because, obviously, you do get hit.
“I’ve had one tiny nick under my right eye, but that a headbutt when I boxed Brian Magee. He’s quite a dirty fighter who holds and headbutts quite a lot. And he throws his punches from southpaw position.
“It’s an honor that Showtime is getting behind me and showing my fight. I boxed in America once before and I really enjoyed it. I got a very good response from the Latin Americans that were out there, because I boxed a guy from Puerto Rico, Henry Porras,and they were sort of getting behind me. They were saying I’ve got ‘big cahoonies,’ whatever that means. [note: “cajones” is Spanish for “balls”]
“I broke my hand in round two against Porras, so I had to box for four or five five rounds with one hand, just my left hand. I was throwing left hooks and uppercuts and I finished him on the corner with my left hand. They was loving it, they was loving my style, they was loving my toughness, and my aggression and obviously, my attitude towards the fight game. I went down very well in America and I’m looking forward to start coming out there.”
Regarding his nickname. he said, “A lot of it is based on my style. They started calling me that after my first two fights. I sit back and I use the jab very well and sharp. And then because I throw one venomous uppercut – I’ve got a very serious right hand that I throw, and I’ve got an uppercut as well, which is like my trademark shot. Like, an uppercut from range, which a lot of people don’t usually throw. They usually throw it in close range, but I throw it outer range. That’s ‘the Cobra’ uppercut. It’s got a good ring to it – Carl the Cobra – it’s a PR job, as well. But the Cobra just comes from one venomous attack, if you like.”
His webpage address is cobraboxing.com.
Key Fights – 2007 – BRITISH SM TITLE – in his last fight on 11-9-07 in Nottingham, ENG, he TKO’d 36 year-old former WBC super middleweight world champion Robin Reid (39-5-1): Carl returned to the ring for the first time in eight months after having surgery on an injured knee, and headlined at the Nottingham Arena; he outworked Reid in the 1st and floored him in the 2nd, but it was ruled a slip; Carl scored a knockdown with a series of punches late in the 3rd; Carl appeared to re-injure his knee in the 4th round and Reid had a small rally, but Carl scored another knockdown with a right hand that dropped Reid to one knee in the 5th, and he did not continue after the round, claiming an injury to his right shoulder; after the fight, Carl said, “After the time out and the big knee op, I was taking my time. I wanted more rounds than that. He was past his best – I’m under no illusions about that – but it was a good comeback fight.”…
On 3-23-07 in Nottingham he TKO’d 34 year-old lefthander Sergey Tatevosyan (26-7): the fight headlined at the Arena and drew an estimated crowd of 4,000; Carl landed the harder punches from the opening bell and dominated the fight; he scored a knockdown with a series of punches – finished by a right hand to the head – in the 2nd round; Tatevosyan got up, but Carl rocked him with a series of unanswered punches, and the referee stopped the fight at 2:44; after the fight, Carl said, “That would have sent a message to all the super middleweights in the world. He had just gone the distance with Lucien Bute and had given him a bit of trouble late on. I’m 29 years old. I have got five or six years at my peak yet.”…
2006 – 3RD BRITISH, 7TH BRITISH COMMONWEALTH SM TITLE DEFENSE – on 11-24-06 in Nottingham he knocked out Tony Dodson (20-3-1): the fight headlined at the Arena and drew a crowd of around 5,000; Dodson outworked Carl in the 1st round, but Carl picked up his pace in the 2nd; he scored a knockdown with a left hook to the body in the 3rd round, and Dodson was counted out on his hands and knees at 2:55 of the 3rd round…
2ND BRITISH, 6TH BRITISH COMMONWEALTH SM TITLE DEFENSE – on 5-26-06 in Bethnal Green, ENG, he knocked out Irish lefthander Brian Magee (25-2): the bout healdined at York Hall, and it was a close fight; Carl scored a knockdown with a right hand that dropped Magee to his knees in the 1st round, and bloodied his nose with a right uppercut in the 2nd; Magee pressed forward, outworked Carl, and rallied in the middle rounds, but was cut over his right eye in the 6th round; Magee tired in the late rounds – Carl scored an off-balance knockdown with a left hook to the body in the 9th round; Carl cut Magee over his left eye, then scored a knockdown with a right uppercut in the 11th round and Magee was counted out at 1:21; after 10 rounds, Carl led by scores of 95-94, 96-95, 97-92; after the fight, he said, “I always knew I had the power to stop him. I hurt my right hand early on, but I can do that to anyone.” …
5TH BRITISH COMMONWEALTH SM TITLE DEFENSE – on 2-1-7-06 in Bethnal Green he TKO’d Australian Dale Westerman (15-5): the fight headlined at York Hall; the early rounds were close, but Carl gradually wore down Westerman and came on strongly in the middle rounds; he bloodied Westerman’s mouth and staggered him with a right uppercut late in the 8th round; Westerman was still on unsteady legs at the start of the 9th round – Carl staggered him with a series of punches, and the referee stopped the fight at 1:45…
2005 – 4TH BRITISH COMMONWEALTH SM TITLE DEFENSE – on 12-2-05 in Nottingham he TKO’d Ruben Groenewald (19-4-3): the fight headlined at the Ice Arena and Carl dominated; he scored a knockdown with a right hand late in the 2nd round; he rocked Groenewald with a series of punches in the 5th round, and the referee stopped the fight at 2:25; after the fight Carl said, “I todl a lot of people I was going to knock him out in round five, so there was a lot of money riding on it. Ruben is very tough, very strong, and a proud man. He wanted to carry on. I respect him but am at a different level.”…
1ST BRITISH, 3RD BRITISH COMMONWEALTH SM TITLE DEFENSE – on 7-9-05 in Nottingham he won a 12 round decision against former British super middleweight champion Matthew Barney (21-5-1): the bout was on the undercard of the Junior Witter-Andreas Kotelnik main event at the Arena; it was a good fight and several rounds were close, but Carl had the edge in most of them; he came on strongly in the late rounds and staggered Barney in the 9th and 10th rounds; scored 118-110 on the British scoring referee system…
On 4-21-05 in Hollywood, CA, he knocked out Henry Porras (30-4-1): Porras gave a good effort and pressed forward, but Carl consistently landed the sharper punches, dominated most of the fight, and steadily wore down Porras; he rocked Porras with a series of punches in the 8th round, Porras’s corner threw in the towel, and the referee stopped the fight at 0:56; after the fight, Carl said, “I said I was going to make America sit up and take notice, and I have done just that.
I would have stopped him earlier had my elbow not gone and if the referee had intervened at the right time, but I am still delighted with my performance. I started a bit cagily – having been out since September – but as soon as I found my range we both knew it was all over. The level of my performance tonight was at 60 percent of my best. I was fighting an experienced fighter. I know I need to work on a lot of things. I’m glad I got to step inside the ring. No one wants to fight me in England, and I enjoyed fighting over here in the States.”…
2004 – WON VACANT BRITISH SM TITLE, 2ND BRITISH COMMONWEALTH SM TITLE DEFENSE – on 9-24-04 in Nottingham he TKO’d Damon Hague (23-3-1): the fight headlined at the Arena; Carl scored two knockdowns in the 1st round – the first with a right hand, the second with right-hand-left hook combination; Hague got up both times but was very unsteady, and the referee stopped the fight at 3:10; after the fight, Carl said, “Damon’s a nice guy and a warrior, but I was man on a mission tonight. I’ve wanted the British title for nine or 10 months now. I’m a 27 year-old man and have the atrributes to meet the best in the world.”…
1ST BRITISH COMMONWEALTH SM TITLE DEFENSE – on 6-2-04 in Nottingham he TKO’d lefthanded Canadian and late substitute Mark Woolnaugh (14-3-1): the early rounds were close, but Woolnaugh outworked Carl and rallied in the middle rounds; Carl came on strongly in the late rounds – he consistently landed the sharper punches and rocked Woolnaugh with a right uppercut and a body punch in the 10th round; Carl staggered Woolnaugh with a series of unanswered punches in the 11th round, and the referee stopped the fight at 1:47…
WON VACANT BRITISH COMMONWEALTH SM TITLE –on 3-12-04 in Nottingham he won a 12 round decision against defending champion and late substitute Charles Adamu (11-1): Adamu outworked Carl and scored repeatedly with his jab and right hands in the early rounds – some ringsiders thought he won the first five rounds; but Adamu tired in the middle rounds and Carl rallied, then scored a knockdown with a right hand late in the 8th round; Carl finished strongly in the late rounds; some ringsiders thought the decision could go either way, but Carl won by a score of 116-113…
On 1-30-04 in Dagenham, ENG, he TKO’d Dmitry Adamovich (8-6): in the 2nd round…
2003 – WON VACANT BRITISH SM TITLE – on 11-28-03 in Derby, ENG, he TKO’d previously undefeated Alan Page (8-0): in the 7th round…
On 10-4-03 in Muswell Hill, ENG, he won an 8 round decision against Vage Kocharyan (10-7-1): scored 78-75…
On 4-16-03 in Nottingham he TKO’d Michael Monaghan (12-7): at 2:18 of the 3rd round…
On 3-5-03 in Bethnal Green he TKO’d Varuzhan Davtyan (3-5): at 1:44 of the 5th round…
On 1-28-03 in Nottingham he TKO’d Valery Odin (6-5): at 2:15 of the 6th round…
He debuted at the age of 24 on 3-16-02…
AMATEUR, PERSONAL BACKGROUND: Carl said, “I was born in Nottingham. I’ve got two brothers. I’ve got an older brother, Lee. He’s 33, and I’ve got a younger brother, Wayne. He’s 25. My older brother boxed as an amateur, but he couldn’t box professional because he’s short-sighted in his right eye. He’s got a stigma in one of his eyes. My younger is not interested in either the training or the discipline. He’s more of a basketball player, six-foot four. My mum’s a licensee – she’s got pubs. My dad’s a carpenter by trade, a joiner-carpenter.
“I used to watch a lot of the old-time greats, Thomas Hearns and Roberto Duran. My dad took me down to club originally. Early on, my dad used to box as an amateur.
“I started boxing when I was about eight, nine. You can’t have your first competition – your first fight – until you’re 11 by law. It’s the legal age requirement. I was actually boxing, I was hitting a bag in my dad’s garage when I was about eight years old. I started in the gym when I was nine, my local boxing club in Nottingham.
“I had almost 90 fights as an amateur. I had about 45, 46 as a junior, as a schoolboy, but then I had a couple of years out, ‘cause my mum actually got a pub in Newark, which is just outside Nottingham. I was about 15, 16, and I didn’t really go the the gym much and didn’t do much. I was concentrating on my studies at school. Still kept myself fit, but I didn’t do much competing. I just had two or three years of taking a back step from it. It was in Newark, and I didn’t really enjoy the club down there. So I lost a bit of interest in it, and the last two years of school can be quite intense.
“I came back into boxing seriously when I was 18, and then I had about same amount of fights as a senior. I boxed in three national championships, I got to one final in my first year. I got beat on points, but everybody said it was a robbery, but there’s nothing more boring than listening to someone say, “I’ve been robbed, I’ve been robbed,” so I lost that one in the finals. Came back a year later, won the ABA’s at middleweight and did a year, won them again. That was ‘99 and 2001.
So I cleaned up domestically, and I got picked to box for England. I had 2000 out at the ABA’s because I was boxing for England, and they sort of clashed with a couple of touraments abroad.
“The 1999 World Championships was the big one for me. I missed out on the Sydney Olympics because I went to a couple of qualifying tournaments, and you probably know the politics in trying to qualify for Europe. You go over to Russia and Eastern European – Eastern Bloc countries – Ukraine, and you just don’t get decisions. You’re landing shots and you’re just not scoring points. It’s really, really sort of controversial, the scoring system. There was one fight I was involved in against a Romanian, an eliminator for the final place for the Sydney Olympics. I remember I lost that fight something like 14-1 on the scoring system. The guys’ eyes were black, his nose was bleeding. We were having a toe-to-toe fight, I was hitting him with everything. I scored one point, and he scored 14. I knew I was being robbed, so I tried to kill him in the last round. The referee even got involved in it. He give me a warning for keeping my arms low. He said, ‘Keep your hands up,’ ‘cause I dropped my hands to goad him in. And he went to the Olympics instead of me.
But I got my revenge a year later in the 2001 World Championships. I boxed an Olympic bronze medalist in my first fight, a guy from Azerbajian, and I absolutely annihilated him 25-14 on the score. I outclassed him, really. I won the next three fights and the fourth, I lost against the Russian world champion in the semifinal. He just outpointed me. I boxed Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday out there. Thursday evening and Friday morning, so the exhaustion starts setting in.
“I’m single. I’ve got a girlfriend, but I’m not married. No kids.”…
STRENGTHS: Has good skills and movement…has good punching power…is experienced against good opposition…
WEAKNESSES: Can be inconsistent…doesn’t always use his skills…has some bad habits – he holds his left hand very low at times…
PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE: 6 years, 2 months…22 fights…123 total rounds…
AVERAGE LENGTH OF BOUTS: 5.5 rounds…
KNOCKOUT PERCENTAGE: 81 %…
DISTANCE FIGHTS: 12 rounds – 2 (2-0)…11 rounds – 2 (2-0)…10 rounds – 0…
CARL “The Cobra” FROCH
Age: 30 (7-2-77)
Residence: Nottingham, England
Birthplace: Nottingham, England
Record: 22-0, 18 KOs
Height: 6’0”
Manager: Self managed
Trainer: Robert McCracken (former British Commonwealth middleweight champion; retired in 2001 with a record of 33-2)
CARL “The Cobra” FROCH (22-0, 18 KOs)…
Ranked WBC #1, The Ring #6 at 168 pounds…
Two-time British super middleweight champion, four successful defenses…
British Commonwealth super middleweight champion, seven successful defenses…