Jermain Taylor v. Allan Green

[Rantcatrat]

well its hard for carl to fight top 10 fighters when they keep on being pussies and not wanting to fight him. Pascal IMO was in the top 10 at 168, carl did the business on him and he wants the big names. They dont want him though

Tom, I respect that you are a fan of Froch's, but if he really wanted to fight top ten fighters - he would fight top ten fighters for less money and in unfriendly environments, like the US or Canada. Has he ever even fought outside of Nottingham? Let alone the UK? Has he ever accepted the raw end of the stick to get a bigger fight?

For a good example, look to Timothy Bradley. No one outside of California had even heard of Tim Bradley. What did Tim Bradley do? He flew to London to fight a top five junior welter weight (Junior Witter) for low pay. Now he is a top contender who everyone is forced to pay attention to at junior welterweight.

With that being said, it looks like the Taylor fight is happening after all, and Froch is actually taking the lower pay and unfriendly environment:

Sky Sports | Boxing | News | Froch close to Taylor bout

Good move Froch. Win or lose, he gains a ton in notoriety.

I may have to eat my words

Froch has fought in America before.

Tim Bradley was the number one contender to Witter's WBC title. It's understandable he travelled.

Carl Froch is the champion, Taylor the challenger, yet Froch is still willing to travel to make the fight.

Taylor has never fought outside the states. He would rather NOT fight the champion than travel.

Froch's crime is clearly being a NON American based fighter.

We can agree to disagree.

Basically, it comes down to name recognition and notoriety versus having a belt (which I may add, was not taken from a champion, but won after it was vacated). You feel the belt should compel fighters to travel to you; I feel name recognition and notoriety are more important (At least given that the belt was just recently won and it was a belt vacated, not taken from a champion).

Take the current Calzaghe situation. Presently, he has people lined up to travel to Wales (Chad Dawson, Glen Johnson, and Bernard Hopkins have offered to travel there), let alone the UK, to fight him after he thoroughly dominated Roy Jones and beat Bernard Hopkins in the US. Because he has name recognition. Speaking of Calzaghe, why hasn't he fought Froch? Because even with a belt who the Froch is Froch?

However, my point wasn't Froch's need to travel outside the UK. Winning in fights outside your home country may be overrated. Froch can fight in the UK, without any criticism, as long as he has the draw and the leverage to compel big-names and worthy challengers to travel to the UK to fight him. More power to him if he can be a champion and compel everyone to come to him.

Would I expect him to travel to the US for an Allan Green or an Andre Ward fight? No way. Like you said he has the belt. But, in terms of notoriety, Jermain Taylor ain't no Allan Green or Andre Ward.

I don't think Froch's status as a NON american is the reason he has to travel. It is a lack of name recognition.