Saturday 31 May 2014

Carl Froch

I used to be a huge boxing fan. My Dad used to go to cinemas in Deptford and Lewisham in the dark of the night to watch the big heavyweight fights of the 1960's and 70's. I grew up on them all including listening to radio commentaries with the Old Man.

In my late teens we had the sensation of Mike Tyson and a vibrant middleweight division that shook the world (Hagler, Hearns, Duran and Leonard). Sadly, the heavyweight division went down the tubes and boxing followed it in the 90's. Has-beens regained titles and the authorities split left, right and centre which devalued the whole thing.

We have had glorious blips since. Ricjky Hatton was admirable and Joe Calzaghe was definitely a worthy world champion but where was the world class? Arguably it's little better today but British boxing has enjoyed Carl Froch's domination of the 12 stone category. My wife's uncle Colin used to chip in every week in their local (in Nottingham) for Froch's meat when I first met her (14 years ago) and I have followed Froch ever since. He has been a worthy champion and tonight he put Groves in his place in what was a landmark fight in British boxing - 80,000 fans at Wembley. Groves never got to grips with Froch this evening and I think he got the game-plan all wrong, focusing on staying strong for the later rounds. It,left him open to a devasting right hook in the eighth. I'm not convinced Groves would have managed it later in the fight either, despite his youth. Uncle Colin will sleep well tonight. Froch has proved himself a near-equal of Joe Calzaghe which is the biggest compliment I can pay him in recent years.

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