A GOOD question in last weekโs Boxing News. Who should Carl Froch fight next?
Nick Bond said it should be Mikkel Kessler, Danny Flexen decided it should be good James DeGale, Matt Christie sat on the fence and picked both Kessler and DeGale and John Dennen thought DeGale or Anthony Dirrell. (The question was actually twofold, Mickey. Who SHOULD Froch fight, and who WILL he fight โ Ed.)
A Kessler fight wouldn’t enhance his reputation, ย as when they fought last time Carl trounced him, and the Dane has not improved since.
A DeGale fightย is not much of a ticket seller and why would he fight a man that spends his time running around the outside of the ring, is boring to watch and ย was beaten by Groves who Carl keeps in his trophy cabinet?
Dirrell not really a ticket seller.
For me Tris Dixon has come up with the best one, Julio Cesar Chavez Jnr. The Mexican likes a tear-up, Carl likes a tear-up, the fans loveย a tear-up, so let’s get it on! Caesars Palace, the MGM, anywhere in Las Vegas. Carl will go there he will win by KO, he will haveย hisย place in the boxing history books, and his pension, and good night Vienna, ย live off it for the rest of his life. He will have deserved it.
AWESOME ANTHONY JOSHUA
An absolutely awesome performance by Anthony Joshua against the very experienced Denis Bakhtov, who came in with 38 wins from 47 fights. Joshua, now with a record of nine fights nine kayos, controlled the Russian with his awesome jab that is necessary to set up the rest of his work.
Joshua set about the Russian from the first bell and did not give Denis any time to breathe, hitting him with every punch in the book, but to the Russianโs credit he stuck to his job and wouldn’t fall. He did manage to catch Joshua with the odd punch in the first round but it didn’t seem to faze Joshua and he just carried on with his work.
In the second round Joshua stepped up the pace and swarmed all over Bakhtov. Referee Ian ย John Lewis ย jumped in and could have stopped the fight, but broke the action up as Denis was holding Joshua’s head. This allowed the outgunned visitor a couple of seconds to gather himself and try and stave off the assault from Joshua but suddenly it was all over and there were no arguments from Denis.
Although the commentators thought the referee could have stopped it the first time, I thought it was a good call for the referee to let the action carry on as Bakhtov is very experienced and deserved the chance to carry on if possible. A good call from the referee, and a great result for Joshua, as Bakhtov had never been stopped inside four rounds before.
We must not get carried away too much with Joshua’s performance and start thinking of the big fights – he is still in need of a lot of experience, especially against bigger men and the necessity to see if he takes a good shot to the chin. Just let him carry on as he is, lifting the quality of opponents as he goes, and start thinking of the big fights in 18 months.
SELBY READY FOR NEXT STEP
I thought Lee Selby putย in a perfect performance against the Aussie Joel Brunker, his tactics were spot on, he was never a static target, kept moving and throwing punches all the time going forward and in reverse. He was relaxed and kept slipping a right hand into the body of Brunker, who was made to look very ordinary even though he was previously unbeaten.
Selby needs a better class of opponent for his next fight before he gets too carried away thinking of fighting the likes of Abner Mares or Nonito Donaire Who are two and three classes above Brunker.