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Home » Froch: I fought all my mandatories, you can’t talk about DeGale

Froch: I fought all my mandatories, you can’t talk about DeGale

The 38 year-old, who decided to step away from the sport this week after over a year out of action, lost both his championships won against Lucian Bute and Mikkel Kessler due to inactivity and believes this shouldn’t be measured against his career.

“I fought everybody and anybody who has been put in front of me, mandatories – everybody. You can’t talk about late on and James DeGale because I’d faced my mandatories so many times in George Groves 1 and 2, so where does it end?” Froch told Sky Sports.

“I’d already made a decision following the Groves rematch that I’m probably not going to fight again, but let’s just see what happens. The Vegas fight I so badly craved nearly came off with Chavez, but didn’t.

“What I’ve realised with talking about all these options is that there are always going to be options. You know, Callum Smith is coming through and there are kids in America coming through unbeaten in 19 fights, tall southpaws. There is always going to be somebody who’s next in line or ready to try and take my scalp.

“If that’s never going to away, at what point do I say right; ‘now’s the time to retire?’ You can’t wait for challengers or opponents. It’s got to be from within here (yourself).”

DeGale went on to succesfully claim to red belt when defeating old Froch foe Andre Dirrell on Premier Boxing Champions in the USA and was keen to meet the British number one before ‘The Cobra’ made the difficult decision to hang up his gloves.

Froch is moving into a permanent role as a Sky pundit on the back of famously mentioning his fight with Groves in front of 80,000 people at Wembley to Floyd Mayweather in the build up to the Manny Pacquiao fight.