http://www.theguardian.com/sport/blog/2009/apr/24/carl-froch-kevin-mitchell Haye fever leaves Carl Froch in the shadows in the US
Others have left Carl Froch struggling for attention as he prepares for his world title bout against Jermain Taylor
Carl Froch and Jermain Taylor
Carl Froch, left, and Jermain Taylor spar gently for the cameras. Photograph: Teddy Blackburn/Reuters
This should be Carl Froch's weekend. He is the world super-middleweight champion and he is fighting a still-good Jermain Taylor on his home turf, yet the wires are throbbing with stories about Ricky Hatton, Manny Pacquiao, David Haye and, so help me, Jack Johnson.
It's noble and right to support John McCain's efforts to have Johnson's conviction under the Mann Act overturned, but it did happen nearly a hundred years ago and the story has been up and running for at least a fortnight. And still Froch struggles to break past Jack into boxing's limelight.
Why is this? It's the way boxing works. It's the excitement business, and, as fine a fighter as he is, Froch has a so-so profile in the UK and virtually none in the United States. In this business, you create your own noise; Froch, a dedicated, hard-working pro, tries to be controversial but it doesn't quite work. He's said all manner of nasty things about Taylor but the remarks have died on the wind that rustles through the trees of Mashantucket, near Ledyard, Connecticut, the venue for their fight tomorrow night.
If more evidence were needed that the louder you shout, the more box-office heat you generate in boxing, it can hardly have been delivered with greater impact than in the recent fortunes of Froch and David Haye.
Haye's unsubtle wind-up of Wladimir Klitschko – complete with T-shirts of him holding the severed heads of his opponent and his brother – has done much to help shift 50,000 tickets two months before he fights the boring Ukrainian for his world heavyweight title in Schalke 04's stadium in Germany (with another 20,000 likely to be added to that).
Froch, meanwhile, walks unmolested around the MGM Grand.
Haye has already created waves in America – no mean feat in the most self-absorbed country in the world, and given that his one fight here was a bizarre affair nearly six years ago when he knocked out the obscure Vance Winn in 54 seconds at Hugh Hefner's Playboy Mansion in Los Angeles.
The Hayemaker shouts so loudly that his premeditated trash-talking echoes across the Atlantic into the offices of the big promoters desperate for anyone who is not a clone of Ivan Drago from Rocky IV to start beating up the Russians.
It helps that he is good-looking, carries a big punch in either hand and has a chin about as reliable as the weather. He is a walking question mark and, in sport, mystery sells. For many boxing fans, the only mystery about Froch is how he pronounces his name.
Indeed, even if he were to trade on his eastern European Jewish heritage, it is doubtful Froch (with a light "ch") could scare up many more ticket sales.
Looking trim and relaxed, he walked quietly back to his hotel room after dinner on Wednesday night, as anonymous as a tourist up from New York.
The 32-year-old Nottingham fighter, unbeaten, healthy and at the very peak of his career, will know after only a few days in this cavernous gambling complex in the middle of a Connecticut wood that Taylor is right when he asks (à la Haye): "Who the Froch is Froch?"
While he is no slouch when it comes to tough talking and hardly lacks for confidence, Froch is not in Haye's mudslinging league.
The problem for a foreign fighter boxing in America is that it doesn't matter any more if he is a cross between Sugar Ray Robinson and Muhammad Ali (OK, that would help), and it doesn't matter how famous he is in his home town. If he's not American, he's at least got to be fighting someone who's not – my enemy's enemy, so to speak.
Furthermore, it is Froch's rotten luck to finally get his big chance, live on Showtime, when boxing is at its lowest ebb in the US for at least 20 years.
While he has brought a small knot of supporters from Nottingham with him, most of the 4,000 customers tomorrow night will be rooting for Taylor, and some of them, gamblers holding complimentary tickets, wouldn't know a left cross from a right bower.
I have always rated Froch, from the time I saw him in the amateurs. He boxed like a pro even then, hands down, with sophisticated ring craft, a sturdy chin and wicked power in either hand. He has all the tools to be a star yet, after seven years as a pro, he has risen to the top with all the speed of the Titanic.
This complex where he will try to relaunch his career started as a bingo hall only 23 years ago and is, apparently, the world's third largest casino. But, parked in the middle of nowhere in south-eastern Connecticut, it seems more like a training camp than the venue for a world title fight.
It might pick up on fight night, but the atmosphere is as dull as the grey skies carpeting these lovely hills
It is not fair. It is boxing.
Topic: Carl Froch the U.K. Boxer is Jewish he's pretty good (Read 993 times)