Carl Froch vacates IBF world title, clearing way for James DeGale

http://www.theguardian.com/sport/2015/feb/03/carl-froch-ibf-world-title-james-degale

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Carl Froch has vacated his IBF super-middleweight title – leaving the door open for his compatriot James DeGale to fight for the title in the coming months.

DeGale became the mandatory challenger for the IBF belt when he defeated Brandon Gonzales on the undercard of the Froch-Groves re-match at Wembley Stadium.

But Froch, whose last bout was his memorable knockout of Groves last May, had been chasing a lucrative showdown with Julio César Chávez Jr in Las Vegas on 28 March until an elbow injury ended his hopes.

He still aims to land a fight against the former middleweight champion Chávez this summer but said he could not stand in the way of DeGale getting a world title chance.

“It’s been a frustrating couple of weeks with terms agreed for the Chávez fight only for me to be unable to proceed in camp due to injury,” said Froch. “I know what it’s like to wait for a shot and I didn’t want to hold James up in fighting for a world title. James is a great fighter and I hope he can go out and win that title and who knows, we may even meet later in the year.”