Carl Froch has issued a missing persons appeal.

Hennessy Sports22nd January, 2009

WBC Super Middleweight champ Carl Froch has issued a missing persons appeal on behalf of former World middleweight champ, and the current mandatory challenger for his title Jermain Taylor.

Froch believes that Taylor has gone into hiding as he looks for a way out of fighting the Cobra who was crowned WBC champ after a fight of the year thriller with Jean Pascal in December.

“Taylor calls himself “Bad Intentions” but if you ask me it should be “No Intentions” because I don’t think he has any intentions of fighting me,” said Froch.

“At this rate the only thing he’s going to win any time soon is the world hide and seek title. If anyone’s seen him lately I’d be very interested to hear about his whereabouts. I’m guessing that he’s probably at home in bed with his head under the covers waiting until an easier fight comes along.

“Purse bids for the fight are due on Friday but there’s been a deafening silence from Jermain about the fight. You can draw your own conclusions on why that is. Look what happened last year, he ducked out of a vacant WBC title fight with me when he could have had a 50 – 50 share of the purses and instead fought in an eliminator so there’s definitely a track record there.

“His own promoter has admitted publicly that they don’t have too many attractive options right now and yet there still running from the only fight that means anything on the world scene – a fight for the most prestigious belt in boxing.

“I’ve always believed that Taylor doesn’t really have the heart for battle anyway, he has all the physical tools required to be a great fighter but he likes to fight in a comfort zone. When you step into that ring with me there’s no comfort zone and there’s no hiding place.”

Froch’s promoter, Mick Hennessy also feels there’s a reluctance on Taylor’s part to step up to the plate. “I believe Lou DiBella and Taylor are trying to walk away from this fight and look for the exit door. I’ve made a formal $1.6 million offer to Taylor’s promoter Lou DiBella for him to fight Carl Froch in the U.K. in either April. It would be a massive fight over here and that offers on the table right now so we can either do a deal or we can wait for the purse bids on Friday.

“Lou has been talking about the offer he’s made but what about the offer that I’ve made? Lou is trying to make this a take it or leave it situation but Carl is the champion, not Taylor and in my opinion he needs to respect that and the WBC purse bid process if it comes to that.

“If we can’t agree a deal beforehand then I know that Carl is happy to accept the outcome of the purse bids regardless of where the fight ends up.”