George Groves has opted to keep it classy in his response to Carl Froch’s comments after the former announced his retirement from boxing earlier this week.
Groves revealed that he was hanging up his gloves following 32 fights, during which he triumphed on 28 occasions, and lost four, spanning from 2008 through to September when he lost to Callum Smith.
Two of those four defeats came against Froch back in 2013 and 2014, with the duo embroiled in a bitter rivalry that quickly caught the imagination of the wider public. The first fight resulted in a controversial ninth-round stoppage in Froch's favour, but the second was a convincing eighth-round knockout in front of 80,000 at Wembley Stadium.
Froch was asked to give his thoughts on his old nemesis’ retirement, but after initially praising his fellow Englishman, he couldn’t help but fire a dig in his direction.
“He had quite explosive power in his best days, but I think he just went past his best after getting ironed out by me at Wembley.”
While Froch would also say:
“I won't miss him and I am not sure that British boxing will miss him, these days at least. There was nothing left out there for him.
“He will be remembered for all those mind games and smart words he came out with, but I have to be honest, I never found him funny or clever.”
Groves, appearing on Sky Sports, was asked for his response but instead of getting involved in a war of words with his former foe he opted to shrug off the comments.
"It's Carl, so he shoots from the hip, and he's fully entitled to do that whenever he comments about myself, because we had a real intense rivalry," said the former WBA super-middleweight title holder.
"As much as I wish it was different, he came out on top, so fair play to him."
Groves, who spoke about the possibility of now becoming a manager in the sport, also revealed his most cherished boxing memory.
"My greatest, sweetest moment was winning that world title at the fourth attempt, which was do or die at that point, and I didn't know if it was actually going to happen.
"But of course, always getting a win over my fiercest rival James DeGale is just as sweet."
