Carl Froch calls for Summers
World champion Carl Froch has again put in a call to the Black Country for sparring as he prepares to defend his IBF super middleweight title.
World champion Carl Froch has again put in a call to the Black Country for sparring as he prepares to defend his IBF super middleweight title.
Froch is in training to defend the crown he wrestled from Lucian Bute in some style five months ago, going up against American Yusaf Mack next month.
It's the second straight title fight at the Nottingham Arena on November 17 for the 35-year-old, with Dudley's Ryan Aston also in action on the undercard.
Aston sparred with Froch before his last fight but, this time, Tipton's Ricky Summers was brought in to put 'the Cobra' through his paces in the gym.
Summers travelled down with his new trainer Paul Gough to Froch's training base in Nottingham, with just one fight under his belt as a professional.
Froch needed a tall, rangy opponent boxing from an orthodox stance to mirror the actions of the 6ft-plus Mack and Summers easily fitted the bill.
The 25-year-old boxed for England and reached a national ABA semi-final in 2010 representing Team GB coach Bob Dillion's club, Lions ABC in Dudley.
Chris Eubank junior in London could be the next sparring assignment for Summers and the Black Country fighter is happy to hit the road for the best training.
He said: "It was a great experience with Carl, he's a world champion and I picked up a lot of him. He's a nice guy, as well, we had a good chat after the spar.
"He's so heavy handed and you have to be switched on, he's so good at capitalising on your mistakes and cutting the range down.
"We went down there with a game plan, working with a long jab and throwing all of my shots from there, because I am tall for the weight."
Summers has changed trainers to Gough from Shaun Cooper due to work commitments, as he needs his training sessions to be later in the evening.
The car dealer sells motors and parts from a small salvage yard and turned to Gough, who had originally expressed an interest when he turned pro.
Priory Park ABC in Dudley is his new training base and Summers has been told he will be next be boxing at Wolverhampton Civic Hall on November 30.
His paid debut came against the slippery Jody Meikle in June where Summers looked sharp in a shut-out points win, despite a break in his training.
A second fight was due to come at the same venue, the Civic, last month but the show was cancelled so preparation has been continuous in the gym.
He said: "I will be out to make a big statement next time, I want to start stopping my opponents and getting them out of there.
"On my debut, I had just got back from Mexico, you could tell by the tan! I was fit but only about 50 per cent fit of what I wanted.
"It was a holiday I had booked the year before and it cost me a lot of money, so I couldn't not go."
