12.11.08 – by James Slater – We are four days on from his dominant and impressive win over Roy Jones Junior, and Joe Calzaghe’s name is still the one on the majority of fight fans’ lips. With a whole lot of talk currently swirling around with regards to what Joe will do next, how great he is, where his place in boxing history is and so on, one fighter has not given up hope of one day getting into a ring with “The Pride of Wales..”
Even though it looks like retirement is an option Joe may well take very soon, the unbeaten Carl Froch – Joe’s would-be successor at super-middleweight – remains hopeful of landing a British mega fight with him. But, as “The Cobra” has made clear while speaking to U.K newspaper The Sun, there is no way the 31-year-old is in Calzaghe’s shadow and if Joe doesn’t want the fight he will have plenty of other options.
“Joe knows how I feel about wanting to fight him,” Froch told The Sun. “I think it’s a big fight for British fans and it’ll generate massive revenue, so the money would be there. But I don’t need to say anything to draw him out because if I beat [Jean] Pascal I will be WBC champion and there will be massive fights out there for me. I’m not in Joe’s shadow now and I’m not going to try and pressure him into doing something he doesn’t want to at the end of his career.”
Speaking from a fan’s standpoint, a Calzaghe-Froch fight would be a great event in Britain. Not since those glorious days when archrivals Nigel Benn, Chris Eubank and Michael Watson were getting on has the U.K fight scene enjoyed as good a match-up and as great a fight as what Calzaghe Vs. Froch would surely be. Bernard Hopkins in an intriguing rematch aside, Froch is the most interesting opponent out there for Joe should he decide to box again.
Froch realises how special a fight between he and the 46-0 Welshman would be, but he says he is tired of asking for the bout.
“It’s a fight the fans would love but I’m not going to go on and on about it because it’s getting boring,” Froch said. “The only person who will regret it if it doesn’t happen is Joe. He’ll retire wondering if he could’ve beaten me and he’s not shut my mouth, has he? I’ve asked him for the fight. He’s had ample opportunities but it’s not happened and talking about it is a bit boring now.”
Perhaps, if Froch beats Pascal to become WBC 168-pound champion on December 6th, Calzaghe will look more seriously at taking the fight – either at super-middleweight or at light-heavy. But at the moment, though a Froch-Calzaghe meeting would be a genuine happening in the U.K, the fight is just one in a number of options for the Hall of Fame-bound 36-year-old.