There are several reasons Carl Froch would come out of retirement to fight the most dangerous opponent he could imagine, Gennady Golovkin.
And, without even reading between the lines of the latest rumours, you already know what they are: the noughts on whatever upright digit the middleweight champion’s promoter, Tom Loeffler, comes up with. I’m guessing it would have to at least look as pretty as this for the former super-middleweight champion: £2,000,000.
Carl loves a quid. He has been assiduous in compiling a decent amount ever since he belatedly decided to turn professional relatively late at 25 after a stellar amateur career. He had to be talked into throwing away his amateur vest but, once he did, he set about making as much from the business as was on offer. He owns several properties and does not easily part with his hard-earned cash. More certainly would be welcome.
But there are other numbers to consider: 39, Froch’s age; 30, the number of months he has been contentedly standing ringside for Sky Sports in a suit watching other fighters do what he did very well for 12 years; 34, Golovkin’s age – towards the end of his ring life, the Kazakh does not want to waste time on fights that mean little in the wider scheme of things.
Golovkin’s career-defining fight will not be the postponed fixture against Daniel Jacobs (what a mess that all is), but the one bout boxing fans want above nearly all others, against Saúl “Canelo” Álvarez. He would be unwise to jeopardise that for what might still be a risky and tough engagement against one of the hardest men in his sport – even if Froch has been away long enough for his battle-hardened edge to soften dangerously.
Old fighters who try to come back invariably tell you the same thing: the moves were there but they took too long to get going. They spend their entire working lives building up a bank of expertise in a sport that is harder than any other to learn properly, and they figure that knowledge will be enough to get through.
They remember the combinations, the footwork and how to create openings, but they forget even more important stuff: like the fact that getting hit often is far riskier at the end of a career than at the start of it. Fighters become so used to soaking up blows, in sparring as well as a fight, that they become complacent. It takes only one punch, however, to remind them why it is such a hazardous undertaking. Kell Brook, younger, fresher and with plenty of ambition, discovered that when Golovkin punished his impudence in moving up from welterweight.
Golovkin is smaller than Froch, but not by much. He is a career middleweight, just as Froch spent most of his time at 12 stone.
Martin Murray is familiar with the numbers game. The St Helen’s fighter, seemingly happy to stay at 12st after three failed world title challenges at middleweight and one at super-middle, beat the three-day replacement Nuhu Lawal, a small 24-year-old undefeated Nigerian middleweight, in Monte Carlo on Saturday night. It should have been a stroll but Lawal gave him plenty to think about. Now Murray is back in the world title picture, and good luck to him.
However, in his previous fight, Murray felt the weight differential in a negative way, as George Groves ground him down over 12 rounds in one of those ticking over “eliminators”. Rounding the circle, Groves, who has rarely been far away from 12 stone in 27 fights, twice found Froch too strong for him. It often has not so much to do with the poundage as the strength contained in a fighter’s frame.
Fewer are stronger than Froch – who also, as Barry McGuigan pointed out in conversation on Monday, is one of the few fighters to stay close to his fighting weight, even when not in training.
That would make a bout with Golovkin a more even affair for both of them, because rehydration is not so much an issue, in that case. Golovkin is in the happy position of being a mature middleweight who is immensely strong.
But there are other influences at play. Eddie Hearn, who put on the biggest British fight in modern times when he persuaded Froch and Groves to share a ring in front of 80,000 fans at Wembley two years ago, would obviously like to deliver Sky Box Office another nailed-on super-fight.
It’s all about the numbers. It’s always all about the numbers. Do they add up for Froch? I don’t think so, however confident he feels, however much he wants to scratch the itch one more time.
