When promoter Eddie Hearn declared that Joe Calzaghe and Carl Froch topped his list of the dream boxers he’d like to get involved in a virtual press conference during this period of self-isolation, he probably didn’t expect the latter to take it so seriously.
Like the rest of us, the boxing promoter has been forced to think outside the box to keep himself and fight fans entertained and has conceptualised a format where boxers, past and present, can take part in a virtual press conference with a rival whom they’ve already fought, were meant to fight or are set to fight.
Sounds fun, right? Imagine Dereck Chisora and Dillian Whyte having a virtual press conference from the confines of their own quarantines before Chisora loses it and throws his own sofa at the webcam.
Speaking to IFLTV, Eddie Hearn says former-super middleweight Carl Froch is chomping at the bit to get a piece of Calzaghe, who retired undefeated in 2008, and wants much more than just a virtual conference with ‘The Italian Dragon’, now 48.
“I can’t believe [Froch’s] blaming this whole thing on me.” said Hearn of the Nottingham-based former fighter’s renewed hatred of Calzaghe.
“I phoned up Carl Froch and I said ‘Mate, I’ve got this idea. We’re gonna be doing virtual press conferences. Basically it’s three screens - me in the middle - and it’s two rivals on either side.
“For example, it was going to be me with [George] Groves and [James] Degale. Me with [Kell] Brook and [Amir] Khan. Me with Devin Haney and Ryan Garcia. Me with [Anthony} Fowler and Fitz [Scott Fitzgerald].
“I don’t think Joe will do it but I would love to get you and Calzaghe at it. I would talk about Froch’s career, I would talk about Calzaghe’s career and then I’ll say, ‘Now, you too - you never got in the ring together did you? But if you did - Carl, what would have happened?”
“The next thing he’s doing an interview saying ‘Eddie asked me to do this thing, I’m not sure whether Calzaghe will do it. [I’m] too big, too strong, I’d still like to fight him - I’ll fight him on the cobbles.”
Hearn didn’t seem surprised to see the 42-year-old was exuberant at the prospect of facing the man he wanted to fight over a decade ago - even if that was far from the promoter’s intention when he brought his proposal to him
“He did say to me, ‘Instead of doing the interview, couldn’t we just do the fight?”
“Frochy’s just dying to fight, isn’t he?”
Calzaghe has since laughed off any claims that Froch would hand him his first professional defeat 12 years after the Welshman hung up his gloves against Roy Jones Jr in 2008, and he doesn’t seem as keen to return to the ring any time soon
He told talkSPORT: “It’s mad, I’m still living in his head after all these years. I’ve done everything you can achieve in boxing.
“I know what would have happened and I don’t take much notice of what he says. I’m 48 and I’ve been retired 10 years, I’m happy with my career.
“When I was at my peak I’d have been too fast and too sharp for him. I think I’d have beaten any super-middleweight, maybe not Roy Jones Jr at his peak.”
Who would have won if these two mythical Brit fighters met in the ring is anyone’s guess but, for the time being, seeing these two trade barbs over some dodgy wifi from hundreds of miles away looks like the closest we’ll ever get.
