Former three-time super-middleweight champ Carl Froch is still buzzing due to the way he will be enshrined in The Hall of Fame in Canastota next year. “The Cobra,” speaking with BBC Sport, said the honour gives him the “seal of approval, that rubber stamp” that he never previously had. Froch, who is rightfully proud of his resume, said he called up his good friend Lennox Lewis as soon as he got the call to go into The HOF.
Froch says that he is now “a living legend,” adding how his name will go alongside those such as Sugar Ray Leonard, Roberto Duran, Thomas Hearns and Marvelous Marvin Hagler – the “Four Kings” being fighters Froch grew up watching.
“Anyone that wants to call me a has-been now has to realise that I’m a legend, a living legend,” Froch said. “I’m not being big-headed. When you look at my career and resume, if I do say so myself, it stands out massively among the best of the best in world boxing. I never got the seal of approval, that rubber stamp that I’ve got now. To be inducted into the International Boxing Hall of Fame puts my name up there with the likes of Sugar Ray Leonard, Roberto Duran, Thomas Hearns, Marvin Hagler – the fighters from the late ’70s and early ’80s who I admired so much and grew up watching. To join the Hall of Famers, the best fighters to have ever walked this earth, and my name to be with theirs, is just brilliant.”
Froch said he actually thought someone was playing a joke on him when he got the call informing him he would be going in at Canastota next summer. But then, when he realised it was for real, Froch called up fellow Hall of Famer Lennox Lewis to tell him he would be joining him in the HOF. Froch has to be looked at as one of the greatest British fighters ever; the sheer depth of quality opposition on his ledger, with many of the names on his record being beaten by Froch, proves it.
Indeed, one could argue that the only thing lacking on Froch’s resume is a mega-fight with Joe Calzaghe. Froch tried his best to get that fight on, and even today, these two don’t really see eye to eye. What a classic fight that one really would have been. As it is, both Froch and Calzaghe will now be forever remembered as Hall of Fame greats.