Carl Froch has never been afraid of calling things exactly how he sees them.
The former super middleweight ruler has had beefs with everyone from Joe Calzaghe to Jake Paul to Tyson Fury’s father John, often because of his forthright views.
One of his longest-running feuds is with Anthony Joshua, who once shared his long-time trainer Rob McCracken. Froch has often accused Joshua of not being a truly elite fighter due to some of the losses he has had to Andy Ruiz Jr and Oleksandr Usyk,
Speaking to Sporting Talk, ‘The Cobra’ strongly suggested that Joshua should now walk away from the sport before possible health implications.
“AJ’ should retire from professional boxing, in my opinion. He’s had a good career, he’s done so much for the sport of boxing, but he’s not elite level when he gets wiped out by [Ruiz Jr ], that little fat kid from Mexico. And then he gets outclassed twice [by Usyk] and then he gets wiped out by Daniel Dubois. He’s got 150 million quid in the bank, why does he need another 20 million? He could end up in a wheelchair.”
Despite Froch’s views, AJ is expected to return to the ring this year, having recovered from minor elbow surgery after this loss to Dubois. Right now, the strongest suggestions are that he might fight Jake Paul, a contest which has been rated as having a 50/50 chance of happening according to his promoter Eddie Hearn.
He has not held a world title since his first loss to Usyk back in 2022, and a win over Paul would likely not get him any closer to fighting for one in 2026, though most fans would rather see him fight Fury, if ‘The Gypsy King’ comes out of retirement as he has teased.