Exclusive – Hearn confident Froch and Groves will fight again

Eddie Hearn is confident the British public will get the fight they want in 2014 - a re-match between Carl Froch and George Groves.

Their first meeting in November ended in controversy when referee Howard Foster stopped the contest in the ninth round, with Groves insistent he was fit to continue.

That stoppage led to a post-fight war of words and demands for a re-match, and promoter Hearn believes a deal can be done to get the pair back in the ring, despite reports to the contrary earlier this week.

“We’re in talks, and every day that passes I get a bit more hopeful,” he told Hawksbee and Jacobs. “Some of the quotes in the papers didn’t really reflect the situation.

“Froch has built a career out of fighting everyone and anyone but at this stage of his career he has aspirations of places in which he wants to fight and elite level fighters he wants to fight.

“The Groves fight would be huge. We know the demand is there. It’s the biggest fight that can be made financially. I’ll and present all the opportunities to him, of which there are four - two of which are particularly inviting.

“They are fights with George Groves and Julio Chavez Jnr, which would take place on pay-per-view on HBO in Las Vegas, which is somewhere Carl has always wanted to box. But I’m confident we will get there with the Groves fight because it is so big.

“Froch has made a career out of giving the British public want they want and I think this time around he’s going to have to do it all again.

“What it comes down to is the rivalry between the two. They really don’t like each other. George has played a really good role as the victim here. It’s unbelievable. It’s like a pantomime how the roles have reversed.

“In the build up [to the first fight] Groves was the baddie and goading this great fighter and showing him no respect, and afterwards Froch was booed out of the ring. He said same things he shouldn’t have but it’s very difficult when you’ve been punching each other in the face for nine rounds just to shake hands and say, ‘nice one mate’ and that didn’t happen.

“Groves is now very popular and the public are right behind it [the re-match]. Froch feels he did win the fight and, if it had gone on for ten or 15 seconds more, it would have been more clinical and that’s what many people feel. But there are those unanswered questions and that’s why it’s so appealing.

“Froch would love to avenge that Andre Ward defeat but that’s not the big money fight.

“The reasons to fight Groves are the money - you can never under-estimate the power of that - and to cement his position. His reputation did take a bit of a knock in the last fight [with Groves].

“I know how hard he works so I don’t think he deserves the stick, even though he did say some things he shouldn’t have. I think Froch wants to draw a line in the sand and give the public what they want. And everyone wants to see the re-match.

“As a promoter you want to make the fights people want to see and this is number one on the list.”