TalkingBoxing Interviews
Talking Boxing with CARL FROCH
FRI July 8, LUKE CHANCE - Carl Froch, 15-0 with 12 stoppage wins, is fast becoming a household name, not just in his native Nottingham where he is something of a folk hero, but worldwide. His recent career best win, an eighth round stoppage of the useful and heavy hitting Henry Porras gained him much visibility in the US. His promotion by Oscar de La Hoya, and his engaging manner and willingness to talk will ensure people remember him for more than just his outstanding boxing skills.
A mover and boxer puncher with a solid chin and distinctive style Froch is soon to be knocking on the door for world titles, and has all the tools to bring unified belts back to England given the time. A stinging jab and sledgehammer right hand have made him one of the most feared fighters in Europe, and with his demolition of Porras, now bigger fish have started taking notice of the man they call ‘The Cobra’. I caught up with him ahead of his meeting with the awkward and canny Matthew Barney this Saturday.
Luke Chance: So Carl, next up Matthew Barney, are you expecting any problems?
Carl Froch: Not really, no. You know what to expect with Matthew Barney don’t you? He does the same thing every time he fights. I’ve been working on ring craft, cutting the ring off and getting him trapped in a corner, against the ropes and I’m ready for his lunge and grab tactics. When he tries to grab and spoil I’m going to be letting some big bombs go, and I don’t think he has been in with anybody that hits as hard as me.
Luke Chance: He recently took the European Light Heavyweight champion, Thomas Ulrich the distance in a close decision. Will that make this victory all the sweeter?
Carl Froch: Well, I’m not really giving him much praise for that fight to be honest. I don’t have to sit here and say ‘Yeah, Matthew Barney got robbed so he should be the European Light Heavyweight Champion’. I don’t think it was such a great fight. I only saw the last four or five rounds, and all I saw was Barney sprinting around the ring and throwing a couple of jabs, and I saw a guy who was probably too weight drained or too weak to chase him and cut him off. I wouldn’t have scored Barney any of the rounds that I saw, I don’t know what happened earlier but the guy [Ulrich] had quite a badly swollen eye so he must have got through with something, Barney. I don’t really know much about Ulrich, what’s his record like?
Luke Chance: 27-1, but no fighters on there you would want to write home about, except a loss via TKO 6 to Glen Johnson.
Carl Froch: How many knockouts?
Luke Chance: Quite a few, about 21 or 22 I think (the actual number is 19!), but mainly against journeymen.
Carl Froch: He’s one of these padded Germans. Not a bad knockout ratio, but if you’re fighting journeymen you are going to put them away. But taking nothing away from that, it does make the bout a little bit more meaningful, and I’ve looked at his ranking in the boxing monthly, and he’s number 2 at Light Heavyweight [in the British rankings] which I think is ridiculous, because I wouldn’t put him in there with Peter Oboh would you? I’m not going to bullshit and say he did well, and he should be European Champion, so when I beat him I’m going to take loads of credit. I’m a realist, and I just don’t think Matthew Barney is in any shape or form a fighter. I don’t think he should have a boxing license to be honest. He’s bad for the sport, he turns up to just literally get through and survive. That’s my opinion, I might be wrong and he might do something different on the night and I hope he does. I hope he comes and fights, and then I’ll knock him spark out, but I can’t see him doing it. All I can see him doing is turning up, and the reason he gets his confidence is because he sits back and says lets get through this. Duck and dive, jab and try to somehow, just maybe get through it and steal a decision. Which against myself is going to be impossible. I punch too hard, I’m stronger than him, I’ve got a longer reach than him, I’m fast, I can box up close, I can box out of range. I’ve got some awkward unusual shots, from silly angles and he’s just not going to be able to cope. He’s in deep water and he’s in trouble.
Luke Chance: You have a common opponent in Charles Adamu don’t you? He struggled against Charles Adamu and held on for his life, I took Charles Adamu on at his own game when I was still relatively inexperienced. I fought him, and put him down. I got the points decision but he was badly hurt. He’s never been in that sort of trouble, and he’s been in with some decent boxers.
Luke Chance: So this ones in the bag right?
Carl Froch: On paper, this fights mine. But I don’t take things easy, I don’t take anybody lightly and he’s a threat to me because he’s coming to my back yard to try to try and take off my British and Commonwealth titles. He better come with more of a game plan that running around, because that isn’t going to steal them off me. No chance.
Luke Chance: I’ve heard it said before that you don’t rate him as a fighter, is this one personal?
Carl Froch: Not really personal, no. I mean there have been a couple of things said recently that I’ve heard in the gym. That I’m a crap fighter, and I’m this and I’m that but I can handle that because it’s just silliness. I don’t even pay any attention to that talk. Mick Monaghan said a few things about me before he boxed me and look what happened to him. Some people are just that way in nature and they do these things to give them a bit more confidence, so let him carry on. I don’t particularly dislike the guy as a person, even though I don’t think he’s a particularly nice person. I don’t think he’s a gentleman or anything but I just dislike his style of fighting, I completely disagree with it. I’m not a Matthew Barney fan. He’s just not enjoyable to watch. He doesn’t provide the fight fans with anything they can get excited about. I’ve got a couple of his fights on DVD, I haven’t been able to watch them. I got to round four or five of Tony Oakey the other day (possibly the worst fight I have ever seen, I believe even Duke McKenzie stopped keeping score), and I wanted another look at the Ulrich fight, and I’ve seen the Adamu one where he just holds on.
Luke Chance: Changing the subject slightly Carl, how was it fighting in America in your eighth round win against world ranked Henry Porras?
Carl Froch: Really good, I enjoyed that. Going out to the states for a second time, as you probably know, I was out there for six weeks before sparring with Howard Eastman, and a few other people. That brought me on no end. I mean you don’t get much more world class than Eastman. He held his own with Hopkins, and he’s a great fighter. The experience of being out there for five weeks in Miami was great and seeing the whole occasion the first time round before I actually went back out there to do it myself. That was a smaller venue in Hollywood, but the fight fans over there really get into their boxing, get out their seats and cheer it on, and give a great atmosphere.
I got big credit for that off the fans out there because they liked my style of fighting, and they could see I’ve got big balls because I stood in front of Porras, who’s a puncher and I took him on at his own game. I was keen to get him out of there. I’d had seven months out from the Damon Hague fight, which didn’t last very long. So a big lay off then I jumped in there with someone ranked, who was a big man, and did a job.
I’ve taken a lot from that, my confidence has boomed, my physical condition and my mental strength have all been topped up. I’m confident that I can get in there with all of the top fighters in the world. I’m ready for a big fight. Two or three more fights at the sort of level of Porras and I’ll be ready for a title challenge. I’ll be ready to fight a champion, whether it’s Lacy, Reid, or someone like Calzaghe, Mikkel Kessler or Markus Beyer. None of them I’ll worry about.
Luke Chance: This next fight is being shown on ITV. It looks like ITV are making a move to bring British boxing back to the masses, how do you feel about that?
Carl Froch: I’m very excited about it. It’s great for British boxing as a whole that it’s now being shown on mainstream television again. I don’t know how many shows are going to be on ITV1 and how many are going to be on ITV2. But the fact that ITV are bringing boxing back to how it used to be is excellent, and if they make a good job of it, British boxing as a whole will be mainstream and everyone will be tuning into Saturday fight night.
This is a really exciting time and I can’t wait for it to get going. Hennessy Sports put some of the best shows on, if ITV can realize that Hennessy Sports make matches that are good television, proper shows against evenly matched opponents rather than just run of the mill opponents that Frank warren tends to bring in.
He puts on good shows, Hennessey, and that’s what’s going to make or break boxing. If the fights that are on ITV are just one sider, it’s no good. Amir Khans a good little fighter, but he’ll probably want top billing and we don’t want two years of him fighting 4 and 6 rounders.
Luke Chance: So for yourself, who is next up after Barney, should you beat him?
Carl Froch: I haven’t got a name in mind yet. I’d love to fight Calzaghe and I’ve called him out before, but he probably has other ideas and other game plans. Some of them I can’t blame him for, he had an easy win against Mario Veit, who was absolutely useless. But a decent fight at light heavyweight against Tarver or someone like that, I couldn’t blame him for taking. I’ve got a lot of respect for Calzaghe, he’s a good strong fighter he’s fit, he’s a world champion and he’s ranked number 1 in the division, he’s not there for nothing. I’m confident I can beat him, I’m good against southpaws and come forward fighters.
Realistically though, that’s probably not going to happen, so if there is no one to challenge me for my British and Commonwealth, I might look at the European or maybe a couple more world ranked opponents to push up my world ranking. One or two more fights over in America would be good, something like Junior Witter did against Lovemore N’Dou, fight someone who’s a name, someone who’s respected, do a good job on him, and that’ll put me up there for a shot at a world title. By 20 fights I’ll be knocking on the door for a world title, and I’ll be a serious threat, and with the backing of Hennessy there’s no reason why it can’t happen.
Luke Chance: Finally Carl, Robin Reid vs. Jeff Lacy, how do you see that going?
Carl Froch: I’ve not seen much of Lacy, just a few clips but I’ve read a lot about him. Didn’t he fight Sheika?
Luke Chance: Yeah, went 12 with Sheika then stopped Rubin Williams.
Carl Froch: Didn’t Williams give him a bit of trouble early on though?
Luke Chance: Yeah, I think a decent mover with a good chin would give Lacy a bit of a headache to be honest.
Carl Froch: Yeah, that’s me, I can move well and I’ve got a granite chin, I could probably take him on as well for a few rounds, but you probably wouldn’t want to stand in front of him, but that’s what I think Reid is going to do and I think he might fall short because he’s slightly past his best.
I’ve got a lot of respect for Robin Reid though, and he’s very tough. I used to be a big Robin Reid fan believe it or not. Me and my family used to sit round and tune in to the Reid fights, against Henry Wharton, and Joe Calzaghe, I actually think he beat Joe Calzaghe, and the German, [Sven] Ottke. I thought late on he sort of spat his gummy out and started being a bit silly, if he’d stuck to his game plan he might have got that. That said it was a blatant robbery.
Robin Reid is someone else I’ve looked up to throughout my boxing fan career if you like. But I think he’s past his best, he’s seen better days, and I think he might be fighting for money now rather than glory. But I’m 28, in my prime, and I’ve got another 5 or 6 years left at the top. I’ve just got the small matter of Matthew barney to get out of the way.
TalkingBoxing.com would like to thank Jason Frost at Hennessy Sports and Carl Froch for being so obliging in granting us the time for this interview. Cheers Carl!
Comments and Questions welcome to Luke.Chance@gmail.com
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