Carl Froch has admitted he faces one of his toughest battles yet after announcing his retirement from boxing at age of 38.
Froch knows he will badly miss the sport which gave him four super-middleweight world titles and earned him a reputation to rank alongside the all-time great global 12-stone champions.
Froch had hoped to end his career in Las Vegas but injury put paid to a projected fight with Julio Cesar Chavez Jr and he has not fought since his Wembley win over George Groves a year ago.
Froch said: "There's no greater feeling for me than standing victorious in the arena and I'm never going to get that again now, and I don't know where I'm going to get that feeling from.
"I just feel like that fighting machine that I love so much and that I need to be to compete at the top level, I feel like it's been put away for too long, and I don't know if I can get hold of him again and go one more time. I really don't think I could."
Froch appears determined to resist the temptation faced by so many fighters who reverse retirement decisions and ultimately live to regret it.
Among those tweeting their congratulations to Froch was Ricky Hatton, who ended a three-year retirement to suffer an ill-advised defeat to Vyacheslav Senchenko in front of his home-town fans in 2012.
Froch will now join the ranks of Sky Sports pundits and his promoter Eddie Hearn praised his decision, calling him a "positive role model" and insisting he still has much to give back to British boxing.
Hearn said: "You should remember Carl Froch for the fighter that he is, someone that never ducked anyone, something that gave the paying public value for money every single day of the week."
Froch will leave the sport with a reputation for chasing down the toughest opponents and attracting a post-War record crowd of 80,000 to Wembley for last May's rematch win over domestic rival George Groves.
Froch added: "I'm incredibly proud of what I have achieved in boxing but now is the right moment to hang up my gloves.
"I have nothing left to prove and my legacy speaks for itself.
"I've got no regrets. I'm not retiring undefeated but in many ways that's better because I've boxed everybody, I've faced every challenge."
Source: PA
