When Jermain Taylor recently was quoted as saying he didn’t know who Carl Froch was, he wasn’t the only one in the U.S. who felt that way. Taylor would tell his friends that he would be fighting Froch for his super middleweight title, and his colleague’s reaction would be a query: Who in the heck is that?
It’s a good question.
“It was kind of embarrassing,” Taylor said at a recent news conference. “He needed to come (to the U.S.) to make a name for himself, so people would know who he was. He can make a name for himself by beating me or by getting beat up. Froch needs me as much as I need him. This is his way to prove that he’s the best.”
For those who need a refresher course on Froch, perhaps now’s a good time to take it.
Undefeated Carl Froch
While he doesn’t have a top-flight name on his resume, Froch will enter the fight owning a 24-0 record with 19 knockouts. The two biggest names the Englishman has beaten – Brian Magee and Jean Pascal, who he topped by unanimous decision in December 2008 for a vacant world title – would register hardly a blip to anybody but hard-core boxing fans. But among those who have heard of him, Froch is well-regarded.
He’d like more people to know about him, though. Which is why he’s fighting Taylor at the Foxwoods Resort Casino in Connecticut on a nationally-televised card. It’s why he’s coming to America.
“I feel I am a world star in the making and looking forward to showcasing my talents,” Froch said at a recent news conference. “Taylor says he is going to take me into deep waters, but I can swim. Obviously, it is correct that American fans don’t know me. But I am a boxing superstar, which is why I am coming to fight on American soil.”
Taylor Moving Past Kelly Pavlik
Taylor, meanwhile, is still trying to revive his career after back-to-back defeats to middleweight champion Kelly Pavlik. Although Taylor (28-2, 17 KO) won the middleweight championship by upsetting Bernard Hopkins in July 2005 and then beating him again in the rematch, Pavlik ended Taylor’s four-fight reign as world champ when he knocked him out in September 2007.
Froch – who, like Pavlik, is naturally bigger than Taylor – wants to emulate Pavlik’s success. Taylor doesn’t think it will happen.
“I was hungry for the Hopkins fights, but I think I got too relaxed and too comfortable after them,” said Taylor, who’s coming off a unanimous decision win against Jeff Lacy. “I was confident against Pavlik but I did some unnecessary things that I should not have been doing. I didn’t do what I was supposed to do in the gym. In the second fight with Pavlik, I had him ready to go but I was too cautious.
“But you learn from mistakes and that makes you a better fighter. This is my way of getting back on track and showing everybody that the fights I lost, it wasn’t me in there.”
