Carl Froch: “I’m looking forward to embarrassing George Groves by flattening him in the rematch.”

(transcribed by Michael Thompson) I recently had a chance during the 209th edition of “On The Ropes” to speak to IBF super middleweight champion, Carl “The Cobra” Froch. Carl discussed his highly anticipated rematch with George Groves, which has been set for May 31st, and also gave his thoughts on the first encounter that saw one of the more controversial stoppages of 2013. Froch also talked about some of the issues he had leading up to the first fight and how he ultimately finished the fight. Here is what Carl Froch had to say in part 1 of his interview. {copyright – must give full credit to On The Ropes and link to article}

Jenna J: Carl, the news of the week is that you will have a rematch with George Groves, it will be on May 31st. How do you feel about this fight?

Carl Froch: Yeah, very happy. It’s a massive fight in terms of prestige, it’s gonna be probably one of the biggest fights to happen in British boxing in the last ten years believe it or not. So to be involved in a fight of that magnitude is always very pleasing because of the attention it brings to the sport, the sport I love and also it shows where I am with my career and the fact that when I fight, it’s big news.

Obviously George Groves is bringing a lot of the attention himself because he’s done a lot of whinging since our first fight and he’s been to the IBF, the WBA and the BBBOC (British Boxing Board of Control) complaining about it. The IBF have decided to let him fight me again. You know me, I’ll fight anybody, so I’m fighting George Groves again and I’m looking forward to doing a job on him and putting it behind me once and for all.

Jenna J: He had to go to all of these organizations to get the rematch, was this a fight that you truly wanted to have next, or did you want to go in a different direction with a Chavez Jr. or an Andre Ward bout?

Carl Froch: Yeah, there was potential of fighting Chavez Jr. The Andre Ward rematch is not really big news to be honest. Andre Ward, every fight he’s involved in is not really big news these days unfortunately for him.

The Groves fight is that big in Britain, it had to happen really. Once the IBF made him mandatory, I was always gonna fight him because I’d rather fight and defend my title than vacate my title as you know.

Once that decision was made by the IBF, I thought to myself, not only is it the biggest fight, the most lucrative fight for me, it’s also gonna put him behind me once and for all and shut him up because I’m sick of listening to him to be honest. For me it was always gonna be the only fight really, realistically once it got ordered by the IBF.

Jenna J: Carl, a lot has been made of the way Groves went out in the first fight, he even talked to the press and said exactly what he was going to do in the first three rounds and pretty much did it. Looking back at it, were you very surprised by the way that he attacked you early in that fight?

Carl Froch: No, not really. He said he was gonna open with two right hands, he only actually hit me with one (laughs). He did well, you’ve got to give him his credit, he did well he came out and landed the big shot, but I was very poor on the night, very, very poor.

You’ve seen it before in the past, Lennox Lewis got knocked out by Hasim Rahman and Oliver McCall a couple of times and in the rematch he put it right. You see, I got flattened in round one, I got caught with a stupid shot that I walked into and guess what? I still won, I turned the fight around and still got the win, that’s the kind of fighter I am.

I don’t make any secrets about the fact that I got off to a terrible start, George Groves got off to a great start but the rest is history. I won the fight in round nine, technical knock out, very satisfied, retained my belt and now the rematch is happening so I’m looking forward to finally embarrassing him once and for all by flattening him in the rematch.

Jenna J: Carl, you mention that you felt you fought poor an the night. Was there anything leading up to the fight that you feel effected your performance?

Carl Froch: There was a few things, I don’t like whinging and moaning–I’ve got whinging and moaning in my head because I’m talking about George Groves by the way, that’s all he does. I don’t like complaining and making excuses after.

There was a couple of problems, I had an infection in my foot, I couldn’t wear my bloody trainers for two weeks, I missed a couple of runs, I missed my final spars, my elbow was sore, but you know I’m sure George Groves and most fighters have got bad elbows and pains.

The worst thing was I had an infection in my foot from athletes foot that went bad. I should of had antibiotics but my nutritionist advises against having antibiotics, so my foot got infected. It was quite bad, I literally couldn’t wear my boxing boots or my trainers so missed quite a lot of stuff on the closing days of the fight.

The last week or two I missed a few spars, but no excuses, I got hit with a right hand in round one, so regardless what was going on with my foot and the infection I had–yeah the preparation wasn’t ideal in the final stages, I got hit with a right hand, that’s got nothing to do with my bloody foot has it, lets be honest.

The other thing was on the night as well, Scott Quigg, the fight that was on before me, he finished his opponent in a couple of rounds, so I went from having like twenty minutes to warm up to all of a sudden five minutes you’ve got to get ready, but that would of been the same for my opponent anyway. The fight before went quick, I should have been ready and I wasn’t.

I just wanted to get on with it, got in the ring and got warmed up in the ring. I warmed up round one when I got up from the canvas to be honest, but that’s boxing you know. Great champions get put down, even greater champions come back to win, and that’s what I did, so I’m very, very happy with my performance and the way in which the result went for me.

Jenna J: You did come on late in the fight, how do you feel about the way you finished things?

Carl Froch: I thought it was a fantastic turnaround to a really bad night’s work and still came out victorious. You can say what you want about the referee and whether or not he stopped it a few seconds too early, maybe he did, maybe he didn’t, but the fact remains he stopped the fight because George Groves was on the receiving end of some serious punishment in round nine.

I’m renownedly known for finishing like a steam train. So there was another ten minutes left of the fight–round ten, eleven and twelve, the rest of round nine–there is no way Groves would have survived, the fight was over. He’s talked himself and whinged and moaned himself into a big rematch and I’m happy about it because it’s very, very lucrative and I get the lions share of it all.

Not only am I involved in the biggest fight in Britain in the last ten years, I’m also getting a substantial reward financially which isn’t why I’m in the sport, but it’s nice and I’ve got a lot to be happy about and I draw a lot of confidence from that first fight.