A prime Carl Froch would defeat Mexican superstar Saul ‘Canelo’ Alvarez – according to Froch himself.
The Brit retired with a record of 33-2 (24) seven years ago after three reigns as the world super middleweight champion.
Froch claimed some big scalps in his career, defeating Arthur Abraham, Glen Johnson, Jermain Taylor, Jean Pascal and George Groves twice. He also split a pair of fights with Mikkel Kessler.
WBC, WBA and WBO 168-pound champion Alvarez 56-1-2 (38) will face IBF counterpart Caleb ‘Sweethands’ Plant 21-0 (12) at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, Nevada on Saturday night.
Froch believes the best version of himself would defeat Alvarez.
“I would have loved that fight,” Froch told Pro Boxing Fans. “If I was in prime and my prime being the back end of my career.
“I beat Lucian Bute in that obliteration and I had the rematch with Kessler and then two Groves fights, which I wasn’t fully motivated for the first Groves fight, but I was for the second.
“I was a mature, seasoned, professional world champion. I had suffered defeats, come back and won.
“So, me in my prime at about 34, 35-years-old against Canelo Alvarez, I think I would have been too much for him.
“I think that myself, the viewers and the listeners can think what they want, but I back myself in fights.
“Against smaller people like Arthur Abraham, who was knocking everybody over and everybody was frightened to death of getting in with him, I just totally outboxed him and battered him like he’d never been battered before.
“So, when I look at Canelo Alvarez and I’ve met him and shook his hand before the [Billy Joe] Saunders fight, because we’ve interviewed him on DAZN.
“I was looking at him and sizing him up and he’s about 5-foot-8 and I shook his hand and his hands aren’t very big.
“We didn’t have a pull or a push or anything. It was amicable. But I was looking at him thinking, ‘I’m not so sure you’d get near me and if you did I’m happy to put one into you, because of the size.’
“But who knows. At the time I would have took the fight, it would have been amazing.
“That’s the kind of fight where I think that would have been a proper fight.
“It would have been me trying to box and move and then realising I’m not good enough to box and move, because he’s a very good boxer even though he’s shorter, so I would have thought, right I’ve got to stand and have a fight with him.
“It would have been, do I get chined? Would he have been the first man to knock me out? I’m not so sure. Would he have put me over? Maybe. But would I have got up to win? Possibly. We’ll never know.”
