Carl Froch

Carl Martin Froch, (born 2 July 1977) is a British former professional boxer who competed from 2002 to 2014, and has since worked as a boxing analyst and commentator.

Carl Martin Froch was born in Colwick, Nottingham, in 1977, the son of Carol (Douglas) and Frank Froch.

His paternal grandparents were Polish (his paternal grandfather also had German ancestry), while Carl's mother's family is English.

Early in his life Froch wanted to become a footballer and play for Nottingham Forest, his local football team, and has stated that he would have loved to fight at the City Ground.

He is a supporter of the club and occasionally trained at its training ground before fights.

He has also appeared on the Sky Sports Saturday morning football show Soccer AM the week before a fight.

Froch began boxing at the Phoenix ABC in Gedling, Nottingham.

As an amateur, he won two ABA middleweight titles in 1999 and 2001 and a bronze medal at the 2001 World Amateur Boxing Championships before turning pro and having his first pro fight in March 2002.

As an amateur, Froch lost to American Peter Manfredo Jr..

Froch was trained by Robert McCracken throughout his professional career.

As an amateur, in the middleweight division, Froch won a bronze medal at the 2001 World Championships, and the ABA title twice.

Froch made his debut at the age of 24 in March 2002.

He fought at the York Hall in Bethnal Green, London against veteran 36 year old journeyman Michael Pinnock (4–52–8, 2 KOs), who weighed 10 pounds more than Froch, in a scheduled six-round bout.

Froch won the fight via a fourth-round technical knockout.

Froch fought a further four times that year, winning them all with three coming by first-round knockout against Ojay Abrahams, Darren Covill and Mike Duffield and one victory coming by a points decision win against Paul Bonson.

Froch started 2003 with a knockout win against Valery Odin, fighting for the first time at the Nottingham Arena, the same arena he would win his first world title five years later.

Froch would next fight in March, April and October of that year defeating Varujan Davtyan and Michael Monaghan by knockout and Vage Kocharyan via points decision, respectively.

At this point in his career, Froch racked up nine wins in as many fights, with seven coming by way of knockout.

In November 2003, Froch fought fellow unbeaten British contender Alan Page (8–0, 4 KOs) at the Derby Storm Arena in Derby for the vacant English super-middleweight title.

In round seven, Froch landed a hard right followed by an uppercut, although Page didn't go down, referee John Keane stepped in to call an end to the fight.

At regional level, he held the British and Commonwealth super-middleweight titles between 2004 and 2008, and won the Lonsdale Belt in 2006.

In 2004, Froch won the Commonwealth and vacant British super-middleweight titles by defeating Charles Adamu and Damon Hague respectively.

He has defended both against Matthew Barney, Brian Magee and Tony Dodson and the Commonwealth belt alone against Ruben Groenewald and Dale Westerman.

Following a victory over the Russian Sergey Tatevosyan, on 9 November 2007 at Trent FM Arena in Nottingham, he stopped the veteran former world champion Robin Reid, after which Reid retired from the sport for four years.

He held multiple super-middleweight world championships, including the World Boxing Council (WBC) title twice between 2008 and 2011, the International Boxing Federation (IBF) title from 2012 to 2015, and the World Boxing Association (WBA) title (Unified version) from 2013 to 2015.

On 6 December 2008, Froch fought Canadian Jean Pascal for the vacant WBC super-middleweight title and won by unanimous decision a hard-fought twelve-round brawl.

Both combatants showed enormous grit and determination, landing and taking huge shots from one another without even flinching.

After the fight, it was revealed that Froch had sustained a perforated eardrum and a cracked rib in his final sparring session before the fight.

Froch's promoter Mick Hennessy gave Froch the opportunity to withdraw from the fight, but Froch refused.

Since the fight, Froch and Pascal (who has since become a light-heavyweight champion) have become friends on a personal level and have made a promise to face each other again in the future, though this seems unlikely given Froch's retirement.

On 25 April 2009, Froch fought Jermain Taylor in his first defence of his WBC super-middleweight title, at the Foxwoods Resort in Mashantucket, Connecticut.

Froch survived a third-round knockdown – the first of his entire career, amateur and professional – and, behind on two of the three judges' scorecards coming into the final round, he managed to stop his opponent with 14 seconds remaining in the twelfth round to retain his WBC super-middleweight title.

After the fight, Froch was quick to send out a verbal challenge to unbeaten Welsh boxer Joe Calzaghe and was also quoted as saying "Kessler, Pavlik, Hopkins, I want them all to feel the force."

On 13 July 2009, Froch agreed to take part in the Super Six World Boxing Classic super-middleweight tournament devised by Showtime, with the winner of the tournament winning the WBA, and WBC super-middleweight titles.

He was managed and promoted by Mick Hennessy until 2011, and from thereon by Eddie Hearn.

Froch was voted Fighter of the Year for 2012 by BoxRec.

In 2013, the UK edition of GQ magazine voted him Sportsman of the Year.

He reached a peak pound for pound ranking of sixth by BoxRec and The Ring magazine, and in 2013 was listed by the BBC as the best active British boxer, pound for pound.

BoxRec ranks Froch as the third greatest British fighter of all time, pound for pound.

Froch will be inducted into the International Boxing Hall of Fame as part of the class of 2023.