Carl Froch open to 'one-fight comeback'

Carl Froch has revealed he is training every day because he remains open to offers for a comeback.

The 38-year-old announced his retirement in July after 14 months out of the ring following his defeat of George Groves.

Since James DeGale has won the IBF super-middleweight title Froch once vacated, however, a potential spring fight with the Olympic gold medallist has become a temptation, but Froch is also adamant that next year is his deadline and that he has no intention of returning after 2016.

“I always said ’Once I’ve retired, I won’t come back’, but just lately now, 18 months on from my last fight, I’m starting to think to myself ’You know what? I’m fit, I’m strong, I’m in good shape’,” Froch said.

“There’s nobody at my weight where I’m thinking ’I’m worried about him’, not even Andre Ward.

“If I did fancy it, I’m thinking spring next year, get Christmas out of the way. I’m training every day. I’m not doing much punching, but my fitness is up.

“If I was going to fight again, and it’s a big if, I’d be ready for next year. Another slice of the action, another snippet in the limelight, a massive fight, all the attention on me – I’m not an attention seeker but it’s just relighting that old flame.

“I’m not missing it, I’m not saying I’m going to come back and fight again, but if I was going to it’d have to be next year, or the door’s definitely shut.

“I did always say ’Never say never’, and there comes a point when I can and that’s the end of next year.

“It’d be a one-fight comeback. I’d beat DeGale, it’s an easy job for me, and he’s world champion. Come back, get my old belt back, show them all how it’s done, and then retire. There’d be something satisfying about that.

“But it’s a big if. I might just stick with poker. The desire’s gone, it’s getting the desire back, what would I need?

“It might be DeGale beating (Lucian) Bute (later this month), coming back and mouthing off.”

Froch had previously made no secret of the fact that his one remaining ambition was to fight in Las Vegas so it was widely thought that that may inspire him.

Yet since attending the richest fight in history between Floyd Mayweather and Manny Pacquiao at the MGM Grand in May he insists that it longer interests him, and that his desire to compete there is firmly in the past.

“I went to watch the Pacquiao-Mayweather fight, I was in and around the whole big fight, and I was thinking ’Big deal’,” he said.

“I wasn’t thinking, ’Wow, I want some of this’, I was thinking ’Is that it? It’s just another venue’.

“It was quite a boring fight, a bit of an anti-climax. Technically it was watchable and entertaining for a boxing purist, but in terms of being entertained, you’re not going to watch it again.”

:: Knock out four-time world champion and partypoker ambassador Carl Froch to win a slice of US dollars 100,000 at www.partypoker.com, the people’s poker site.