Carl Froch had a famously granite chin that helped him become a multi-time world champion.
Although he was put down on the canvas on a few occasions, Froch holds the accolade of never being knocked out or stopped in his career. He had 35 fights and won 33 of them with 24 coming by way of knockout.
Froch’s most famous bouts include a last-second victory of American Jermain Taylor, who has beating him on the cards until the Brit landed a barrage of punches with just 14 seconds of the final round remaining to clutch victory from the jaws of defeat.
He has had two legendary contests with George Groves, the first of which saw him put down early but rally to get a controversial mid-round stoppage. That led to pressure for a rematch, which Froch took and settled in much more conclusive fashion with a clean one-punch knockout – the last of his career – in front of 80, 000 people at Wembley Stadium in May 2024.
He also fought the likes of Mikkel Kessler, Lucien Bute, Jean Pascal and Andre Ward, who beat him in the Super Six tournament.
However, he considers none of those big names the hardest puncher he faced. Speaking to Casino Beats, Froch revealed that Glen Johnson, who he beat by decision in 2011 to retain his WBC super middleweight title, was the opponent who packed the biggest punch.
“I’ve taken some big shots in my career. The guy who knocked out Antonio Tarver and Roy Jones Jr was Glengoffe Johnson. When I fought him, he was past his best, but the last thing to go is your punching power. I think he was forty-one years old when I jumped in with him at Broadwalk Empire in America, and it was about round eight or round nine.
“It was humid, hot, and I was sweating so much. I was training so hard. I was in the division below the day before weigh in so I was eating loads, drinking loads, getting electrolytes–trying to get my weight back up. I felt a bit flat for that. In that fight, he hit me with a right hand in round seven or eight. He f***ing backed me up to the ropes, came with the right hand and crunched me on the chin. If that wasn’t enough, he lined up another one.”
“The commentary went wild, I was f***ing all over the shop but managed to turn in five or six punches and get on the back foot. He cracked a good shot. My jaw was all f***ed up for about three weeks. It didn’t break my jaw but it did something. I couldn’t bite down for those weeks. I got it scanned but it was fine–just bruised or whatever.”
Jamaica’s Johnson competed from 1993 until 2015 with a record of 54 wins from 77 fights. A champion at light-heavyweight and title challenger at middle and super-middleweight, Johnson’s biggest win was a stoppage of Roy Jones Jr in 2004.
He scored 37 stoppages in all, but those stats perhaps don’t tell the whole story of his power – particularly when a man of Froch’s durability speaks so highly of it.
