Amateur
Froch began boxing at his home in Colwick, Nottingham at 9 years old. He later joined the Phoenix ABC in Gedling, near 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.
During his amateur career, he lost a fight to Denis Inkin, who he was scheduled to fight in a title eliminator in 2008, but Inkin pulled out on three occasions.
Professional career
Froch has had 28 professional fights, with 20 knockout and 7 decision victories, suffering defeat only once.
Froch, trained by Robert McCracken and managed by Mick Hennessy, is the current WBC World super-middleweight champion.
In 2004, he won the vacant British and Commonwealth Championships. He has defended both against Brian Magee, Tony Dodson, Matthew Barney and Damon Hague, and the Commonwealth belt alone against Ruben Groenewald and Dale Westerman, earning him a Lonsdale Belt outright in the process and fulfilling a long-held ambition.[citation needed]
Following a victory over the Armenian Sergey Tatevosyan, on the 9 November 2007 at Trent FM Arena in Nottingham he stopped veteran ex-world champion Robin Reid, after which Reid retired.
He is a supporter of Nottingham Forest and has a season ticket, making him a popular figure among Forest fans. He occasionally trains at Forest's training ground when a fight is upcoming. He has also appeared on the popular Sky Sports Saturday Morning Football show Soccer AM the week before a fight. He has been a special guest at the City Ground on a number of occasions and received a warm welcome from the Forest faithful.
On 10 May 2008, at the Trent FM Arena in Nottingham Carl Froch stopped unbeaten Polish Albert Rybacki in the 4th round of a scheduled 12. Rybacki was drafted in as a last-minute replacement after initial opponent Denis Inkin pulled out on two occasions and no Top 30 fighter was willing to take the fight at two weeks' notice.
Jean Pascal
On 6 December 2008, Froch fought Canadian Jean Pascal for the vacant WBC super middleweight title and won after a hard-fought 12-round brawl. Both combatants showed enormous grit and determination, landing and taking huge shots from one another without even flinching.
Since the fight, Froch and Pascal have become friends on a personal level and have made a promise to face each other again in the future.
Pascal has since moved up to light heavyweight and become the WBC light heavyweight champion after defeating Adrian Diaconu. Pascal has since defended his title four times, including a bout against highly-touted American Chad Dawson, and a majority draw in home territory, against a 45 year old Bernard Hopkins that saw the only judge not scoring a draw awarding the fight to Hopkins.
Jermain Taylor
On 25 April 2009, Froch fought Jermain Taylor in his first defence of his WBC super middleweight title, at the Foxwoods Resort in Foxwoods, Connecticut. Froch survived a third-round knockdown – the first of his entire career, amateur and professional – and, behind on two of the three judges' cards coming into the final round, he managed to stop his opponent with a stunning 12th round knockout.
After the fight, brimming with confidence, 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."
Super Six World Boxing Classic
On 13 July, Froch agreed to take part in the Super Six World Boxing Classic super middleweight tournament devised by American giant Showtime. The tournament features 6 boxers including Andre Dirrell, Mikkel Kessler, Arthur Abraham, Jermain Taylor, Andre Ward and Froch himself. Froch's first opponent in the Super Six was Andre Dirrell.
Andre Dirrell
The bout took place in Nottingham on 18 October and Froch's WBC world title was on the line. Froch won the fight and retained his title with a split decision victory over the previously undefeated Andre Dirrell. Two of the judges scored the bout 115-112 in favour of Froch, with the other scoring the bout 114-113 in favour of Dirrell.
Mikkel Kessler
Froch's next fight was against Mikkel Kessler, who lost the WBA Super Middleweight Championship to Andre Ward. Froch's WBC title was again on the line. In a closely fought contest in Kessler's home country of Denmark where both men had great moments throughout the fight, Kessler took Froch's title and inflicted Froch's first professional defeat via unanimous decision, the judges scoring the contest by margins of 116-112, 115-113 and a dubious 117-111. Froch later stated that the fight was close and that he believes the decision would have gone his way if the event had been held in Nottingham.
Arthur Abraham
Froch faced former middleweight champion Arthur Abraham in the third stage. However, since an eye injury forced Mikkel Kessler to relinquish his WBC title and resign from the tournament, Froch-Abraham was for the vacant WBC super-middleweight title. Both Froch and Abraham came off of a loss in stage two of the Super Six. Abraham lost after a disqualification against former Froch victim Andre Dirrell, when Abraham landed a sweeping hook to the chin of Dirrell while he was down on one knee.
Froch put up, arguably, the best performance of his career to regain the WBC super-middleweight title as he dominated from start to finish to claim a unanimous points victory over Arthur Abraham in Helsinki. Many doubted Froch would last the distance against the powerful Abraham and that Abraham would knock him out,Abraham was also the favourite to win at the bookmakers. Pundits felt that his pourous defense and akward style would be no match for Abraham's power. Froch won the fight against Abraham, with the scores given by the judges of 119-109, 120-108 and 120-108, reflecting the one-sided nature of the bout.
