FROCH v CALZAGHE domestic superfight article..
Kerry Duffy www.britishboxing.net

With the recent ‘super-fight' between Oscar De La Hoya and Floyd Mayweather Jr still fresh in our minds, it seems Frank Warren has latched on to the sense of excitement it provoked, by announcing his intentions to stage his very own super-fights.

Whether the hype around Mayweather and De La Hoya was justified after 36 minutes is debatable, but it certainly got everyone talking, before and after. It generated a palpable excitement in the world of boxing. The result was unpredictable; the pre-fight publicity dramatic, the bad guy was on top form and the good guy kept his composure. All the boxes ticked for a potential war. Regardless of the result, it was a positive move having two big names in the ring together and willing to at least risk defeat in their journey to immortality within the ropes.

Warren is willing to utilise his useful stable in the hope of re-creating the domestic rivalry that occurred in the 1990's between the likes of Chris Eubank, Nigel Benn, Michael Watson and Steve Collins. This time, though Warren is concentrating on the lower end of the weight divide and set to enthral us all with his men at feather and lightweight.

It is often suggested that a lot of fighters at the top have avoided their potential banana skins/nemesis; instead opting to fight those deemed less of a risk to future world domination. Personally I'm loathe to make any such claim as every time a fighter enters the ring they do so at their own risk, but this accusation has been levelled at everyone from Calzaghe to Mayweather…”so and so can't be considered pound for pound ‘cos he's avoided whatsisname.”

I feel it's the fans that lose out in the end, though. Joe Calzaghe's recent fight against Contender runner up, Peter Manfredo was a perfect example of the fans feeling short-changed. After he's stunning victory over Jeff Lacy maybe we expected more.

So whom would the public like to see in a genuine super-fight?

Hatton vs. Witter, Haye vs. Maccarinelli, Calzaghe vs. Froch, to name but three on the domestic front. I would personally love to see Joe Calzaghe against Carl Froch, but of course we are led to believe that each side want the fight yet the other can't meet demands. Money, money, money….(N.B. Warren has just won the purse bids for Froch's mandatory Commonwealth defence against Charles Adamu which makes the picture more interesting - Ed.)

I'm sure Calzaghe in the twilight of his career is quite rightly looking for American exposure and big money and maybe doesn't deem Froch worthy enough, but I don't doubt the level of interest in Britain would be massive and with what appears to be a mutual dislike on both sides it would shape up to be explosive. I can't imagine ‘lose' is a word in either of their vocabularies and Froch just keeps getting stronger and looks ripe for a great showdown. What better test for Calzaghe?

That would a super-fight worthy of Eubank, Benn et al.