Froch's next fight

[Kirkland Laing]

Hopkins. Can come to England, play the pantomime bad guy and get people interested in watching the fightOutside of hardcore fans who'll be watching anyway the target market - potential Sky PPV customers - won't be too familiar with Hopkins so his potential for spoiling/boring people to death won't count too much against him. He's definitely in the running.

Kessler. If he doesn't retire he could fight Stieglitz next, get a win and a belt again then rematch Froch for a final huge payday. If it happens I think Froch stops him late. I don't think an immediate trilogy fight would sell well. If Froch fights say Ward or Hopkins next even if he loses to Ward the trilogy fight is still viable and if Kessler has a belt and is coming off a win it helps sell the fight a lot. But will Sauerland want to give up the WBO belt when they can have a moneyspinning Stieglitz-Abraham trilogy fight and still control the winner?

Ward will come over and fight provided he gets paid what he feels is right. I'm pretty sure Kessler got 55 or 60% of the split for last night's fight. Ward would want the same kind of deal. I think Froch would put up a better performance than last time but still lose and he knows it. It's a massive money fight again for Froch though, potential Sky PPV punters won't have seen much of Ward outside highlight clips (on which everybody looks good) and will be sold on him being a pound for pound top two or three guy and Froch saying he'll get revenge.

Last night was a successful return to PPV for Sky. They won't want their next PPV fight to be a dud so they can keep doing them. That'll have a lot of bearing on who Froch fights next as it's Sky who are bringing the money for these fights, not casinos or US TV. I think they'd like Ward followed by Kessler but hey, Ward might not get offered what he wants and Kessler might retire. But I'm pretty sure that's what Sky would like to show.

It's just a shame there aren't better options for Sky/Froch than two of the worst fighters to sell/watch in Hopkins/Ward. But it'll be Ward, Hopkins or Kessler next for Froch. Definitely a big PPVable name, Froch is only going to want big money fights for as long as he has left.