Printable View
It's not so much that he won't face Hopkins as much as it is Hopkins saying not for any amount of money will he fight Ward. You know SRL fought Duran after getting his butt wooped the first time I don't see why this is so frowned upon. Froch has solid win after win and now people want to see if he's improved enough to beat the man who once defeated him. Personally I don't think so but the narrative makes sense.
Ward talking about fighters proving themselves in America is just something for him to say when he got asked the question. He also said he'd fight in England if the money was right and I'm sure he would. The question is how much will Hearn offer him?
They could do it at the Millenium with the roof closed and at least double Saturday night's crowd. It'd also do better on PPV than any other option except maybe a Kessler trilogy fight. If Kessler continues and fights another Brian McGee level guy (don't think he'll get Stieglitz again) and gets a win then that fight is more marketable than a straight rematch.
Maybe Hearn can sell Sky a fight with Adonis Stevenson on PPV, or maybe they do a non-PPV fight against somebody like Stevenson/Bika while Kessler gets a win and then they go for a PPV trilogy. Froch might fancy that option more than anything else, two fights he knows he can win versus probable defeat against Ward. It's all going to come down to dollars, or in this case PPV pound notes.