By Rob Smith: Former two time super middleweight champion Carl Froch may opt to retire if he gets beaten by IBF super middleweight champion Lucian Bute tonight in Nottingham, UK, says Froch’s promoter Eddie Hearn. Froch really has his mind set winning the fight and it could send him into retirement if he loses the bout. As of now, Froch is considered an underdog and there’s a very high likelihood that Bute beats him.
Hearn said to the BBC Sport “He told me ‘I have to win this fight,’ and that’s a different mentality to what he’s had before. He knows the score, a loss here would be a disaster. This is probably his last opportunity to win the world title back. Nothing would surprise me with Carl Froch, he may even retire if he beats Lucian Bute because it would be a fantastic time to do something like that. And if he was to lose, there’s plenty more fights out there for him, but would he want them? It depends on how he looks.”
First of all, I don’t see Froch retiring unless he gets blasted out by Bute in a vicious manner. That’s certainly possible, but not probable. If Bute couldn’t stop 43-year-old Glen Johnson then he probably won’t be able to defeat Froch. Hearn is wrong about Froch not having opportunities for big fights should he lose to Bute. To be sure, he’ll have few options at super middleweight if that’s where he insists on saying, but he can always move up in weight and fight at light heavyweight. Promoter Frank Warren made a recent offer to Froch for him to fight his champion WBO light heavyweight champ Nathan Cleverly if Froch wants it. That would be a great opportunity for Froch to continue to find success, albeit in a different weight class.
There are options for Froch should he lose, but it depends on Froch’s state of mind. If he’s crushed by the loss mentally then maybe it might be best for him to get out of boxing on a losing note. I think the writing would be on the wall that there isn’t much for him to do at super middleweight unless he wants to position himself so that he can fight for the WBO 168 pound title. That’s definitely an avenue for him because Arthur Abraham will be facing WBO champ Robert Stieglitz in the summer and there’s a strong chance that Abraham will beat him. Froch already dominated Abraham in the Super Six tournament, and it would be no problem for Froch to beat him again if he can get the fight.
Froch would likely have to wait a long while, though, because he would be given a chance at fighting Abraham, because the German based fighters’ handlers would no doubt want to keep Abraham far away from Froch.