Carl Froch Shakes His Head at The Idea of a Comeback

Carl Froch has insisted he would be happy to stay retired from the boxing ring.

The Nottingham fighter almost missed receiving his MBE for services to his sport after getting stuck in gridlock on the motorway as he drove from his home down to London.

But while the four-time world champion was in a rush to get Buckingham Palace for his date with the Duke of Cambridge, he confirmed he is in no hurry to get back in shape for another fight.

And Froch revealed a rather unusual antidote for whenever he does dream of boxing - demands from his wife Rachael for a foot massage.

Froch, 38, threw his final punch last year when he knocked out arch-rival George Groves, hanging up his gloves for good this July.

But despite his own recent suggestion that he might step back on to the canvas once more, Froch says he is happy his fighting days are done.

"It would be worse if I was younger and if I'd not reached the heights I've reached," he said. "I am finding it really, really easy and am really happily retired.

"I obviously think about fighting again now and again ... But for me, not only do I not need it, I don't particularly want it."

Training is no longer four times a day but a gentle swim and weights session, and his weight has risen to a lean 13 and a half stone - which he thinks would be impossible to get back down to his fighting weight of 12 stone.

He said: "The thought of getting up at half six every morning, seven o'clock, doing a long run come wind, rain or snow, bloody hell.

"I just turn over and go back to sleep now, it's great."

With four super-middleweight world titles under his belt and a final fight that saw him send Groves to the canvas with one of the finest punches in British boxing history, Froch feels "it doesn't get any bigger than that - it's the crest of a wave".

Now firmly on the safe side of the ropes working as a pundit for Sky, when he sees boxers being announced and coming to the ring in the shape of their life, his own experiences feel "like another lifetime now, another person, almost".

He regards himself as "civilized" now, father to a young family.

Froch said: "There are always fights going off that are going to be potential matches for me, and while I still feel strong enough and physically capable to compete at a top level ... when I see a lot of the people fighting I think, 'I could do him, I could beat him' ... so why not?

"And then Rachael looks at me and says, 'You're thinking about boxing, aren't you? Get the dinner on. Go and take Rocco to football, or take him down the gym. Keep rubbing my feet' - that's the latest one - 'Don't talk about going back into boxing'.

"If I tried to say to Rachael I'm boxing again, she probably wouldn't let me, and in reality it's not a sensible thing to do.

"People that have been retired a long time out of boxing and have come back, I don't think it's ever a happy ending, ever."

Money from the ring holds no motivation for Froch now, and he even reveals that "the desire is gone".

His time is now taken up with acting, making a documentary, playing poker and his punditry work.