The retired Carl Froch, who in 2023 was inducted into the International Boxing Hall of Fame, was on Monday the guest of honour at a lunch hosted in London by the Boxing Writers’ Club.
His final 12 fights, starting with his victory over Jean Pascal in 2008 for the vacant WBC super middleweight title and ending with his stoppage of George Groves at Wembley Stadium in 2014 on the occasion of their rematch for the IBF and WBA titles, represents a run as impressive as any fighter in history.
Approaching 10 years in retirement, at that lunch he revisited his career in an extensive Q&A.
*
My career highlight, as an amateur, was a world championship bronze medal [in Belfast in 2001] – I missed out on the Sydney Olympics [in 2000] – and it was then, when I won that bronze medal in the world championships, when I met my mentor; my right hand man; like a father figure, a brother, a best friend rolled into one. Rob McCracken.
Everyone knows who [my trainer] Rob McCracken is. Rob McCracken was the reason I turned professional. That’s why I took him out [with me to Canastota] when I got inducted into the Hall of Fame, because without Rob McCracken, not only would I not have been as successful as I was, I wouldn’t have been the man I am now. Rob’s really genuine; really honest, and he’s so loyal, and a proper tough guy. I was nervous as an amateur – always nervous before fights. I’m sure everybody always gets nervous, but I was nervous until that bell went. When I walked to the ring with Rob McCracken, we had that little talk before the fight in between rounds. He just filled me with so much confidence; I didn’t wanna let him down. I had a fantastic career. I’ve had an unbelievable journey.
Of course I miss it. I miss the elation of a world-title fight, and the pressure you got, because you got so much pressure on you in a training camp. ‘Don’t get injured; you gotta make 12st’; you gotta starve to death. Sparring’s horrible. Everything’s hard and horrible; it’s a grind. There’s nothing truer than boxing – it’s the most true sport.
In my opinion it’s being ruined by Saudi Arabia at the minute. The money’s killing it. There’s a lot of money floating around and not enough getting put back into grassroots boxing, and not enough going into the aftercare of boxing and retired fighters and injured fighters. Some of them hundreds of millions being invested could go to the [British Boxing] Board of Control and be used to look after fighters.
I’m speaking to Eddie Hearn in a couple of weeks and I’m going to try and suggest something. But unfortunately most people are greedy; most people are selfish. It’s just inherent. I’m not calling anybody out – I’m not putting Eddie Hearn in that bracket – but promoters and top fighters only think about one thing and that’s themselves and that’s the sport we’re involved in as well, unfortunately.
Q: Was it a regret that you never fought Joe Calzaghe?
I wouldn’t say it’s a regret, if I’m totally honest. I don’t regret not fighting him. The thought of fighting Calzaghe at the time when I boxed [Jean] Pascal – I don’t think I was ready for Joe Calzaghe. In the build-up, I’d have made too much of a big deal of it.
Jean Pascal turned out to be a fantastic fighter – he had a great career at light heavyweight. He was a unified champion. So who knows what would have happened [if I’d fought Calzaghe]?
But it’s not regret. I do wish it would have happened later – after the [Lucian] Bute fight [in 2012], maybe. But he was finished after [Bernard] Hopkins and Roy Jones [in 2008]. I’m always honest and say that Joe Calzaghe would have given me one helluva hard fight. If I didn’t knock him out, which would have been hard to do – he was very tough – I’d have lost on points, because he was so busy.
I don’t look at it as a regret. I look back on that and think, ‘Maybe I dodged a bullet – maybe it was supposed to happen like that’.
That night with Pascal, which was a toe-to-toe fight between two young hungry lions – Pascal was a helluva fighter. Maybe I would have beaten Calzaghe that night. But maybe I’d have lost to him and that’d have been the end of my career. Things happen for a reason. Serendipity – it can do you a favour.
I’d have liked to have boxed him. [But] I don’t look back in regret. It’s slightly different eras. He went and fought Hopkins – I thought he lost; who am I to judge? – and Roy Jones.
Q: How would you have done against Chris Eubank, Nigel Benn and Michael Watson?
Tough fights. Steve Collins; Benn; Michael Watson – what a fighter; Chris Eubank. He had finesse didn’t he, Eubank? He was quite skilful. He’d have been really tough – that’d have been a hard fight.
Benn would have been a toe-to-toe war. Benn and Eubank – they was mainly 160lbs fighters, so middleweights. I just think I was a little bit too big. When I met Nigel Benn, and Eubank – and Steve Collins as well – they’re all like 5ft 10ins. I’m a bit bigger than them [Froch is 6ft 1ins] and got a bit more reach than them. A bit like Arthur Abraham when I fought Abraham [in 2010]. I’m a bit too big for them. If I go in the ring thinking I’m too big for someone – too strong – maybe I’d find out as soon as I got hit on the chin what would happen, but I could walk through shots.
But I think they’d have been great fights. I’m not gonna say I’d beat Eubank, Benn or Collins. I could’ve beaten them, but they equally could have beaten me. Great fighters – great era – them three. Collins beat them two when they were slightly past their best as well. He was a tough, hard man – no real skill. I was a little bit like that, but I did win two ABA titles and a medal at the worlds, so I’d got more skill as an amateur and as a boxer than people gave me credit for. I used to get hit with so many shots but I used to always use my fitness – my toughness – to get me through fights, and that’s why at 37 I decided to retire.
The next fight for me would have been Gennady Golovkin. If I’ve not got the desire, and I’m not as fit as I should be, your punch resistance drops; your fitness ain’t there down the championship rounds; those last three or four rounds. That would have been my main attribute – my main asset in a professional ring – diminished. I don’t think I’d have got through that fight. When I was in training camp to fight Golovkin, or maybe [Julio Cesar] Chavez Jr, or Andrzej Fonfara – that fight never happened. I was trying to do a deal with Eddie Hearn as well. You speak to Eddie, then he goes and talks to his dad [Barry] and his old man says, ‘No’. So, it never happened, but I retired on the crest of the wave that was Wembley [Stadium and the victory in the rematch with George Groves].
Q: How do you reflect on the fight with Jermain Taylor?
Unfortunately I’ve not got my memory back from that night. That round-three knockdown left me quite heavily concussed and it meant when I watched it back – it was shown delayed on the Sunday… Mike Costello was out there commentating for BBC 5Live. It’s some of the best commentary I’ve ever listened to. I don’t listen to many radio commentaries, but I’ve since gone back and listened to a few. That night, against Jermain Taylor, climbing off the canvas in round three – I finished the fight quite strong. From round eight; nine, I started to get to him. I was clipping him with quite a few shots and backing him up; he was a bit wobbly; shaky on his feet. I couldn’t get him out of there. Going back to my corner Rob McCracken was like, ‘Keep backing him up; keep backing him up and when he comes at you, go back at him’. In my head I was, ‘I gotta keep backing him up’. He never told me to go out there and stop him; ‘You need a knockout’. I didn’t even know it was the last round.
From what I can remember, I didn’t think ‘This is the last round; I’m going all out’. It’s just all a blur. When I look back at the videos, I literally can’t remember anything. I can’t remember celebrating. My brother [Lee] jumped in after; my wife Rachael was there. I just can’t remember anything. It’s gone. Hopefully it might come back later on in life.
Going out in the last round – round 12 – I was just on autopilot; just doing what I do. All of the hard work and commitment and dedication before the fight – all of the hard training. That’s what gets you through that. You’re just drawing on experience. But I’d only had one world-title fight – Jean Pascal. Won that and I was straight in the deep end.
Q: What do you make of “crossover” boxing?
[Tyson] Fury must have just been having a really bad night [in October against Francis Ngannou] – or, like I think, Fury’s past his best. He’s seen better days.
I study the sport and I study the fights, and Tyson Fury used to throw 30-plus feints a round. Feint, feint. Draw his opponent in, feint. Double jab, right hand. He’s not doing the feints anymore. He’s doing four or five feints. He’s slow on his feet. He’s been knocked down five times [in recent years]. When you’re hitting the floor and getting hit on the chin and not throwing feints and not as busy as you used to be, that means you’re past your best and you’re on the decline and you’re on the slide.
I don’t think the [Oleksandr] Usyk fight happens. If it does, [Fury] must love the pound note, because he’s got enough money. He don’t need to fight. If he fights Usyk, he’ll get beat – unless I’m totally wrong and Fury’s just not taking the sport seriously.
When I watched that Netflix series – he’s up and down mentally. If he takes it seriously and he fancies it and he’s happy and on a high, he trains properly. You might see the last, best Tyson Fury. He might get in there with Usyk and be too big for him and too quick, and beat him and dominate him, and then I hope he retires.
But, one, I don’t think the fight will happen. Two, if it happens, I think – unless he rekindles the old flame – he’s going to get easily beat. I don’t think it’ll be a knockout or anything like that. I just think it’ll be a points job, or maybe a late stoppage, because Usyk is a lot smaller than him, and a bit lighter. But he’s growing into the weight now. But he’s an old man himself. He’s past his best.
In the next two or three years, there’s going to be no Fury, no “AJ” [Anthony Joshua], no Usyk. They’re all going to be gone, and then you’ll have Daniel Dubois and a guy called Jared Anderson in America who’s coming through.“There’s going to be some new heavyweights coming through. Joe Joyce will be gone. He should retire anyway, Joyce.
Q: Can you elaborate on what you said earlier about the importance of the British title?
I don’t think enough people appreciate what the British title does for your career in terms of experience and being in fights that really mean something. If you’ve got that belt – I wanted to keep the belt. It’s got so much history, and has quite a few names on it. To have that and say I’m now in the history books and I defended it three times…
To win the British title, and to defend the British title outright – it’s my favourite belt in my trophy cabinet. David Starie had it for a few years, and Dean Francis; [The British Boxing Board of Control] had it polished back up for me and it looks brand, spanking new on top of my mantelpiece. I love that British title.
I don’t think enough fighters now hold the British title in high enough regard, ‘cause that’s how you learn your trade. Without winning my British title and defending it three times, against people like Matthew Barney; Tony Dodson; Robin Reid; Brian Magee… Them sort of fights –12 rounders where you’re struggling – get you ready for the fights that I had with Jean Pascal and Jermain Taylor.
Conor Benn, for example, who’s now saying, “I’ll fight Terence Crawford”. He can’t be jumping in with people like Terence Crawford and expect anybody to take him seriously, because he’s not at that level yet. It’s a process. You’ve got to do your apprenticeship, and that almost minimises the British title a little bit by saying it’s an apprenticeship – [but] it is.
The foundations of becoming a man in the professional game – you go from being a contender to being a serious operator within professional boxing if you can win that British title. Everyone who has world-title aspirations – if you can win that British title and defend it, you’re cementing yourself as somebody who’s firmly going to go on and have a chance at winning a world title. If you try and cut that corner and get an interim title, you’re gonna go and fight someone who can really fight and get found out and that’s the end of your career.
Matthew Barney [in 2005] probably got me ready for when I fought Andre Dirrell [in 2009] in the Super Six. Tricky; horrible; leaning away and trying not to get hit; survival mode. All that experience from being a British champion, before I stepped up to world level – that was rounds of experience in the bank. Sparring’s the closest thing you can get to fighting but it’s not anything like fighting.
The British title for me is my favourite belt. It’s close to my heart. I thank Robert Smith and the Board for always remembering who I am.
Q: What made you decide to retire when you did?
I was training, potentially for a fight, and I never quit anything. Never stopped bag work; never went on a run and didn’t finish a run. If I stop on a run, I’ve quit on the fight, and that means I can quit – and I’m not a quitter.
Even if I’ve got a stitch and I’m into the fourth mile and I’m on the watch and doing six minutes a mile – I’ve got to finish strong. Otherwise in my head I’m not meeting the target; I’m not hitting the goals I want to hit. Dreams are just dreams without goals, so you have to make goals.
When I was training for the potential [Julio Cesar] Chavez Jr fight – a six-miler; 36 minutes is my best time for that – halfway around the run thinking about Chavez Jr, I got a bit of a stitch and my Achilles tendon was killing me; my knee was sore. There was a few aches and pains, and I’m running up this hill thinking, “Why am I doing this? I’ve done what I needed to do. I beat [George] Groves at Wembley in a rematch. I’m 37”. I stopped running.
“I’m walking, and it was the best walk ever. I’m walking home, and I’ve got a tear in me eye and I’m feeling emotional; it was a 25-minute walk; it would have been a 10-minute run. I got home, and [wife] Rachael’s like, “Where have you been? What’s gone off? What’s up with you?”. She could see it in my face.
I just said to her – I’m getting a bit choked up now; I feel a bit silly; I can feel the emotion now – “It’s over; it’s done; I’m finished; I’m not fighting anymore”. She got hold of me, give me a cuddle, and said, “I’m so glad – I’m so happy for you”. I said, “I’ve got to speak to [my trainer] Rob McCracken – I’ve got to give him a ring”. She was really happy.
That’s when I knew it was over, ‘cause I’d stopped the run; quit on the run, so I’d quit boxing. I’d finished. “I’m not going to box anymore.” I felt like a weight had been lifted. “I’ve done that – lovely.” “Let’s do this – let’s go on holiday.”
Q: Did anyone ever seriously try to tempt you back?
Eddie Hearn, yeah – you know what he’s like. He loves a pound note.
But no, I just said… Once I’d finished – once I’d retired – I knew I’d done it all.