Froch could face TV blackout

The Times - Ron Lewis7th April, 2009

The biggest night of Carl Froch's career could be blacked out from British screens, unless a last minute deal can be struck. With only 15 days until Froch makes the first defence of his WBC super-middleweight title against Jermain Taylor at Foxwoods, Connecticut, no TV deal is in place to show the fight in Britain.

ITV, which showed Froch's world title win over Jean Pascal on ITV1 and has a deal with Froch's promoter, Mick Hennessy, to screen shows on ITV4, has so far not signed up to show the bout, while interest from Sky and Setanta has not surfaced either. Only BBC Radio 5 has so far signed up to broadcast the contest.

The lack of a television deal (it will be shown on Showtime in the United States) has left Froch frustrated.

"This is a massive fight although British TV doesn't seem to think so," Froch said. "Unless something can be agreed shortly before the fight it's going to mean fight fans missing out on seeing one of British boxing's greatest ever nights and that would be a real shame.

"The irony is that I could have stayed at home in Nottingham, had a nice easy, first defence and that would have been shown on British TV. That would be the easy option though and I didn't come all this way to become World Champion and then con the fans.

"When you first put on a pair of gloves as a kid you don't dream about making routine defences, you dream about putting it all on the line and fighting the best in the world and that's exactly what I'm doing now. It will be British TV's loss if this fight isn't shown because they will miss out on some British sporting history in the making with me going over to the US, taking Taylor into the trenches and finish him in style."

It will be nothing short of a disaster for the sport in Britain if the bout is not shown live. Froch has the potential to become a major star, but, even though the bout will take place in the middle of the night, the contest is better than anything shown on non-pay-per-view television this year.

Of course, it could just be that the television companies are holding fire in the hope that the price comes down. A deal was not struck to show David Haye's WBC, WBA cruiserweight title win over Jean-Marc Mormeck until the day before the bout.

Froch, who is currently training in Canada, has no doubts he will win, which he believes will upset Showtime. The US cable network has lured Taylor, the former world middleweight champion, away from rival HBO and would be looking to build him into a star of the network.

"They're going to see a great fight between two fighters at the top of their game but for them it's going to be the wrong result," Froch said. "Naturally they're excited about having a marquee name like Taylor fighting on Showtime for the first time. I saw a feature they did on the fight at the weekend and they introduced Taylor as one of the greatest fighters of his generation. It might be his place but it's going to be my time and my generation on April 25."

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