You have a point. Back in 2007 when Calzhage fought Manfredo, Froch was already the British super middleweight champion with 22-0 record counting impressive wins over Brian McGee, Tony Dodson, Sergei Tatevosyan and common foe with Calzhage, Robin Reid, all by KO/TKO.
Reviewing Calzhage's unblemished record, it appeared impressive on the surface but if you look into the state of the named fighters that he fought and beat at the time he fought them, with the sole exception of Bernard Hopkins, most if not all of them were either old and on the decline or already lost dismally to other fighters.
On the other hand, Froch steadily progressed by fighting only the top fighters available or who agreed to fight him as Mikkel Kessler, Jean Pascal, Jermain Taylor, Andre Dirrell, Andre Ward, Arthur Abraham, Glen Johnson, Lucien Bute and Yusaf Mack.
Had they fought back in 2007, I think Froch might have succeeded in blotching Calzhage's immaculate record.
Calzaghe unified the Super Middleweight division so he can hardly be called a paper champion.
Calzaghe fought Manfredo Jr to raise his profile in American. Manfredo Jr was very well known in America due to being on the Contender. Froch had no profile, not even in the UK. It would be like Andre Ward fighting George Groves, its not going to happen. Plus the fact that Carl Froch made his name off the back of bad mouthing Calzaghe and wouldn't even recognise the WBO belt as a real world title, just because Calzaghe had it. I don't know about you, but if someone was doing that to me I wouldn't go out of my way to give them a pay day.
As for Calzaghe slapping people, it doesn't matter if he did or not, he still beat everyone he ever fought, he still KO'd 32 of his opponents while having well documented hand problems. As Jeff Lacy if Calzaghe slaps.
I'm not sure what you mean about him having wooden legs? His footwork and movement were very good.
It needs to be remembered just how unpopular Carl Froch used to be. He couldn't give away tickets in those days. He had such a low profile that no TV station in the UK bought the rights to his world title fight with Jermain Taylor. I've never heard of this happening for a British world champion before.
Calzaghe wasn't a bum, neither did he slap. He won 21 of his first 22 by KO plus beat Mikkel Kessler when Kessler was undefeated, held the WBO super middleweight title for 11 years made 21 successful defenses.............
As for why he didn't fight Froch, Froch at that time brought very little to the table. Calzaghe fought Bernard Hopkins in a fight which netted him millions. At that time Calzaghe was nearing the end of his career and wanted a couple of big pay days against big names in America before he retired.
At the time Froch was unbeaten but had no world titles under his belt and was still really just a promising domestic fighter, the fight wouldn't have sold as well and was a pointless risk for Calzaghe.
Back at the time froch was only a British champion and calzaghe only had two fights left in him, Do you think that Froch should snub a rematch fight with Andre Ward and fight James degale instead?? btw froch hasn't been best smw in the world for even a day, let alone 8 years so he isn't in calzaghe's league anyway.
Joe would have fought Carl, but Frankie Warren didn't want to take the risk of Calzaghe's unbeaten record getting blemished. Froch was a serious threat, that is why Joe and Warren ducked him.
In the short answer to your question, one word........"FEAR" is why Calzaghe didn't fight Froch, same reason Mayweather ducked Pacquiao, they were afraid they would lose.
Calzaghie is a paper champion. Why did he fight that bum Peter Manfredo instead of Carl Froch? And he couldn't punch. He slapped and he had wooden legs.
