An Evening with Carl Froch !

An evening in Nottingham on Tuesday 27th November at The Approach,

Hosted by Heart FM's Gareth Evans. 

Entrance is FREE but a ticket is required available at The Approach Website HERE

A 3 course meal deal is available for £15.00

Friar Lane, Nottingham, NG1 6DQ

Froch to face Denis Inkin

The Nottingham fighter, 30, is undefeated in 22 fights, while Inkin, 29, is unbeaten in 31 pro encounters.

From Monday, the boxers' promoters will have 30 days to reach a deal before the fight goes to a purse bid.

"I'd like to think Joe Calzaghe will be there when I get past Inkin, I want to keep that dream alive," said Froch.

"I'm one fight away from the ultimate aim and the biggest prize in boxing, the WBC title.

"It's nice to be confirmed as number one by the WBC as well because I'm up against some stiff competition, like Inkin and Juergen Braehmer.

"Inkin is a decent fighter who is cool and skilful. I boxed him as an amateur in 1999 when he beat me on points but I put him down in the last round with an uppercut that really hurt him. This will be revenge."

Froch, who forced former world champion Robin Reid into retirement on Friday, will face Inkin for the right to fight Calzaghe, the WBC champion.

However, the 35-year-old Calzaghe is expected to relinquish his super-middleweight belts in the near future and step up to 175lb, with a fight against American legend Bernard Hopkins in the pipeline.

Reid Officially Retires

Source: Manchester Evening News

ROBIN Reid has retired from boxing after losing to Carl Froch in his challenge for the British super-middleweight title on Friday.

The 36-year-old Reaperman told M.E.N. Sport that his body was telling him it was time to quit after an arm injury had forced him to retire on his stool at the end of the fifth round.

Some at ringside felt he had "thrown in" the injury as he clearly looked to be heading for defeat against the hard-hitting Froch after being knocked down in the third and fifth rounds.

But Reid revealed an egg-sized lump on the inside of his right elbow, an injury he sustained when a looping overhand right caught Froch's elbow. It also aggravated a long-standing injury to his own elbow, and against a dangerous boxer like Froch, it would have been madness to continue.

"That was my last fight," said and emotional Reid. "It's all wear and tear, and there is life after boxing. I have just got engaged to my girlfriend Jenny Dowell and we will get married next year some time and soon have some little Reapermen running around.

"I will hopefully pass on the experience I have picked up over the years, from winning a bronze at the Olympic Games, the WBC title, the IBO title, and getting in with some great fighters like Joe Calzaghe."

Reid revealed how he had picked up the injury as he sought a jackpot punch in a fight which was dominated by the younger, fresher Froch, who is now seeking a showdown with either Calzaghe or Mikkel Kessler.

"I've had a bad elbow for years - old age, it's called! I had physio on it and I had to have a cortisone injection before the fight," he said. "He was letting big shots go but he didn't really hurt me - when I went down it was all about experience, not being the macho man.

"I wobbled him a couple of times with those big overhand rights, but when you have an injury like that, it is always on your mind. And as I bowled one, I caught his elbow with my arm and that caused the injury."

Trainer Brian Hughes, who plans to retire himself next month, led the tributes to Reid, whose career he has nurtured and guided since he won a bronze medal at the Olympic Games in 1992.

"He has been a pleasure to work with, to coach and to train, and he is a wonderful human being as well as a tremendous boxer. He wanted to carry on, but I could see the writing was on the wall."

Hughes revealed that he had urged Reid to retire after his victory over Jesse Brinkley in March, saying: "We didn't want Robbie to take this fight, and for him to retire on a win after he beat Brinkley.

"He was told by the Board two years ago he needed fights under his belt after losing to Jeff Lacy before he could be considered for a British title eliminator. He has only had the Brinkley fight since then.

"But money talks and when the promoter Mick Hennessy put in a bid of £157,500, which must be a record for a British title fight, and one that will never be beaten, the Board forgot what they had said and let him fight."

Good luck to Reid.  Shame the way his career ended though after good fights with Calzaghe and Ottke and winning the WBC title.

Reid WAS injured

Photographer Colin Messom caught the moment when Robin Reid was discussing his arm injury sustained during the fight againt the Cobra.

A large welt was growing fast on the Runcorn fighter's forearm, sustained during battle.

Fighters often get injured during the fight and carry on regardless, but at 36, Robin Reid had felt that he'd given his all and was getting hit hard and often by the Nottingham champion.

Froch is certainly no stranger to injury, sustaining snapped thumbs, ruptured biceps and burst knuckle capsules in the last couple of years yet still went on to KO his opponent's regardless ! (Magee, Westerman & Porras respectively)

Froch smokes Reid's Boots

By Tom Podmore

Carl Froch, in a Hennessy Sports press release in 2004, said he would smoke the boots of Robin Reid if they ever met in the ring. Fast-forward three years and the Nottingham puncher backed up his boasts by forcing ‘The Reaperman' to retire on his stool after five rounds at the Nottingham Arena.

Former WBC champ Reid was pulled out of this twelve-round British super-middleweight title fight by career-long trainer Brian Hughes after tasting the canvas twice and starting to seriously wilt under the ferocious attack from ‘The Cobra'.

Better to be retired on your stool than be knocked unconscious, which could well have happened in the following rounds. Froch always looked as if he could have stepped up the intensity of the attack if needed be.

Reid – famed for his ability to absorb a good shot – could also have had a count given to him in round two, but referee Dave Parris, a former pro, controversially ruled it a slip.

If this is the end for Robin, as he promised before the fight, he can look back on a career that saw him capture a Olympic bronze in 1992, win a recognised world title in 1997 and give legendary Welsh southpaw Joe Calzaghe one of his hardest nights.

Interestingly, Reid is the only fighter to have taken WBC, WBA and WBO champ Calzaghe to a split decision – doing so at the Telewest Arena in Newcastle eight-and-half years ago.

But for Froch, boxing in front of a huge, vociferous crowd in his home-city, its now onwards and upwards in search of fights at the next level, with Canada-based Romanian Lucian Bute (the IBF champ) being mooted for the summer of next year.

However, there is no question who Carl would like to face if he was given the choice. He hopes the destruction of Reid will set up a clash with Joe Calzaghe. But whether the recognised twelve-stone number one will accept the challenge – after all, he has bigger fish to fry – is another matter.

Whilst it's a fight that would generate a lot of interest in the United Kingdom, it would mean little or nothing to the American market, who bring the big bucks to the table.

Froch is a live, dangerous foe who is capable of beating Calzaghe, but Joe – and who can blame him – is looking to step up to light-heavyweight and fight Bernard Hopkins in a money-spinning clash in the USA next year.

After his previous three explosive performances, a lot of people are starting to believe in Froch, 30, with around 6,500 packing the Nottingham Arena for, what was on paper at least, his sternest test.

Another test that ultra-confident Froch passed with flying colours on his march to bigger titles in 2008.

After a noisy crowd booed tanned, confident Runcorn-based Reid like a pantomime villain – something Reid loved and revelled in, by the way – slow-starting Froch watched Robin in the early stages of the opening round, seeing what card he'd play.

By the half-way point, however, Carl looked to assert his authority in the clinches, forcing Reid to (surprise, surprise) moan to the referee about his opponents hitting whilst tied-up.

Brian Hughes, the legendary Manchester trainer, told his man between the first and second rounds that the undefeated Midlander, himself a former world-class amateur (World Amateur bronze), was made for the overhand right.

But it was Froch that took control in the second. Looking cool under pressure, watching the punches go by before viciously hitting back, Carl buckled Reid's legs with a stinging right, drove him back and a right hand-right uppercut put Rob on the deck.

London official Dave Parris deemed it, albeit controversially in my eyes, a slip and let the action continue. I thought that the punches Froch had landed were clean and had forced Reid, hazy of head, to go down.

Froch (11st 13 1/2lbs) found his range, and his breakthrough, in the third session. After ticking off both men for indiscretions, Froch stepped up the attack, forcing Reid onto the back foot – greeted with roars from the partisan crowd – and nailed him a right hand and short left uppercut in his own corner. Reid touched down.

Mr Parris began the count as the bell tolled and even though Reid's trainer tried to get between them and manoeuvre his charge onto the stool, Parris pushed him aside and continued to count.

However, after tasting the canvas in the previous round I gave Reid the next session. He found his range with some looping overhand rights, which got a nonchalant shake of the head from the iron-chinned Froch. But Reid (11st 13 1/4lbs) had got his message across – I'm still here, still punching back.

But Carl's sharp, accurate, whipping punches found him more success in what was the final round. Reid, 36, tried to stand his ground but was tagged by a chopping, downward right hand, making him take a step back and drop to one knee.

He didn't appear to be too perturbed, even winking at his corner, and got up and repelled a Froch follow-up – not a place that many fighters would relish being in the position of.

Then came the retirement with an injury to his right shoulder. The more educated amongst us knew that was an excuse to save the former world-class twelve-stoner, now 39-6-1 (27), from a nasty fate in the ensuing rounds.

Froch, now 22-0 (18), said: “It was a great performance from me, especially after the operation to my knee had kept me out of action since March (eight months). It was the rust-shredder I needed.

“Reid is a class act, a great fighter but I did what I had to do,” continued Carl, making the fourth defence of the Lonsdale belt he won outright at this venue twelve months ago.

“I'm under no illusions about how good Reid is these days – he was past his best. But he still can take a great punch and came to give Carl Froch a fight, a run-for-his-money.

“It's now time for me to make my mark on the world stage in the next year. I will be a world champion by this time next year.

“I utterly destroyed Sergey Tatevosyan, who Lucian Bute had to go the distance with two months earlier, in March.

“So the statistics say it all. Lucian Bute maybe the IBF champion but is not a massive puncher and has not been hit by someone like me yet,” said the Rob McCracken-trained fighter.

But Froch wants a certain Welsh portsider next year: “I've been a big Joe Calzaghe fan over the years but have not been impressed by the way he doesn't want to fight me.

“I think Calzaghe should fight me really. He has had a couple of soft defences rather than fighting me and I've got the hump with him over it. I would be a more dangerous fight than Bernard Hopkins, which he is talking about for his next fight.

“OK, Kessler was a good win and Joe put on a good performance, but he says he wants only big fights now and fighting me would be just that. There would be huge interest in Britain for it.

“I'll repeat this until Calzaghe takes notice and sees sense in fighting me. His greatest danger is not in America against a 42-year-old man but in Great Britain, Nottingham to be precise.”

Welsh dragon Calzaghe be warned: the English cobra wants to spit his deadly and potent venom in your direction.

Terry O'Connor (Birmingham), Ian John-Lewis (Gillingham) and Howard Foster (Doncaster) were the three scoring judges that were rendered irrelevant.