Froch will fill the void.....

that Pavlik has left in the states. Carl Froch has let it be known that he will leave the UK altogether and settle in the states. He has maybe 3 or 4 big fights left should he beat Ward in the S6 finals. The win will boost his profile in America and I believe the yanks will embrace him as they did with Pavlik when he was red hot. Pavlik, although no one will admit it, symbolised a white American champion at the top of his game. Alas it does not look good for Pavlik now as he has some real personal issues to deal with.

Froch, who can already boast a fine record, will replace Pavlik in this way. When Pavlik beat Taylor it was big news in the game of boxing and it meant something special, and there is nothing wrong with that but Froch can really attain p4p status potentially against the likes of Hopkins, Dawson, Pascal again and even Kessler.

what do you think?

Well it depends, if he loses to Ward which is on the cards apparently, he proabbly won't...

Even if he loses to Ward, i still think he can take out Pascal, Kessler and Bute. The guys has complete wars, has a granite chin along with some decent punch power. He can sell tickets anywhere in the UK and the US. He is also well traveled. Don't know which route he would take if he loses though? Id presume that he will chase a title fight with Bute no doubt in Canada or Romania!

Bute would out box him bad idea. Its hard to look good against Bute.

See, i don't rate Bute at all. I think Froch knocks him out.

I wouldn't be too shocked to see Bute beat Froch and Ward.

AND Ward? Really? Hmmmm intriguing thoughts. I cant see it personally, i think Bute is slightly over-rated. Ward and Froch have better resumes by far. Saying that, resumes don't really mean much nowadays.

Must admit, I did think Bute looked pretty sharp last time out. Quite impressive and could actually see him beating Froch. Ward fight would never happen though as neither fighter will ever leave their backyard.

Bute has been 'overrated' for years without anyone outside of Boxing Monthly rating him. He's one of the most common boxers to be labelled overrated, so how can he be?

I think he is over-rated based on the fighters he has faced. No one stands out to me. I mean Froch has beaten proven opponents in Taylor,Pascal and Direll (maybe!), im sure they were back to back as well, pretty hard run in!
He also ran Kessler close in a great war in Denmark. When i look at Bute i see a hometown fighter who is fed old washed up fighters to make him look good. Pacquiao is doing a pretty good job of that at the moment, well, Bob Arum is. I mean he has fought some taylor made fighters and battered them apart from Marquez. If Bute was fighting the likes of Kessler, Froch, Direll, Stiegltz etc then id shut up, but until he beats someone worth shouting about then fair enough. I mean before he fought Johnson a month ago, i dont even know who he fought before.

But how can someone be overrated if nobody rates them?

All anyone says is that he's feasting on bums.

Just looked. He has actually fought nobody class at all. Mendy, Andrade, McGee, Brinkley and Miranda?

Froch: Pascal, Taylor, Abraham, Direll, Kessler and soon to be WARD

I think Froch will lose to Ward, which will make it hard for him to get superstar status over there. Ward will be the next Golden Boy as the Americans will like to get behind their own fighter.

I also think its a bit late in the day for Froch. I dont see him having more than 3/4 fights win or lose after Ward.

He just fought Johnson, who's previous opponent was Froch, and did a much better job on him than Carl did....

Spoke to Froch earlier this year and he's adamant that, regardless of whether he wins or loses against Ward, his next fight will be in Britain. Can't blame him for that, I suppose.

Have to say, I don't really see him 'taking off' big time over in America, or the American's particularly taking Froch in to their hearts, regardless of the result next week. I think he'll be respected, much as he already is, but I doubt there would be a massive clamour to see him Stateside again. His fights are usually very entertaining but also ugly to watch now and then, and his personality isn't all that engaging.

Not sure where he goes if he loses to Ward. If he does lose I'm ninety percent sure it's by decision, so travelling will be less appealing to him given that he, presumably, will claim that he was the victim of a hometown stinker as he supposedly was against Kessler. A rematch with Pascal at 175 lb might be interesting but again, he'd probably have to go over to Canada for that. Kessler, presumably, would be more interested in a rematch with Ward than Froch in such circumstances, and if Bute is staying put in Canada, that leaves Froch waiting around for everyone else, not something he can really do at his age.

Yep we are going to start backing Brits now....After all Mayweather and Hoppo etc are so poor they could never wish to get to Pavlik's level..

d260005p wrote:I don't rate Bute at all. I think Froch knocks him out.

I want whatever your drinking...

Clev is in Cardiff in Feb Steffy.

I think Froch will have to win this by KO to be sure of winning. Lets be honest if it goes to the cards Ward will win. He has had every fight in america so far and is unbeaten I think they want him to become the next big star. I hope it is not the same ref from the Hatton fight as that guy will be biased like he was against Hatton the ref should be from a neutral country.

Waingro, Cortez was NOT biased for crying out loud. You do infuriate me.

Froch>Ward>Kessler>Bute IMO

Think you're underselling Bute there to be honest. It's very up in the air, but in my opinion Bute is actually hell for Froch to be honest and I don't imagine he would be able to get past him.

Scottrf wrote:Clev is in Cardiff in Feb Steffy.

Yep me and my bro getting tickets. Plus its my birthday in Feb so he can get them as a present

The ref was very biased against Hatton in that fight imo. He did not let Hatton fight his best fight when Hatton got too near Mayweather he also took a point off Hatton with no warning and he blamed Hatton for holding when it was really Mayweather who was doing the holding up close. Very biased I thought and Hatton said the same thing.

Just think some of the refeering decisions went against Hatton, but Cortez is not a biased referee... Just think at times he is incompetent. The referee didn't get Hatton knocked out anyway, it was Mayweather understanding how to deal with Hatton.

Alex - don't you know that Mayweather and Manny were biased against Hatton too? They were hoping he'd lose - bitter wums.

Cortez didnt stop B Hops headbutting against Calzaghe

Agree though he is not biased just not up to it anymore

Agree with Waingro (!) to an extent, in so much as the point deduction against Hatton was very poor and almost inexplicable. As for the rest of the 'bias' against Hatton we sometimes hear about, I think it gets overblown. Seems that a lot of Hatton's hardcore followers were angry at Cortez for simply upholding the laws of the sport, most of the time. Lest we forget, you're not actually meant to hold and hug your opponent.

Anyway, Hatton would have fought Mayweather with Matt Hatton as the referee and he'd still have lost.

I was never convinced by Pavlik, to be honest.

Ward UD 'fair win', and if the fight was in UK id say SD/MD Froch 'robbery' dejavu of the Dirrell disgrace of a decision.