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Carl Froch got his boxing experience by scrapping in pubs at the age of 15.
The iconic boxer never turned pro until he was 24, though didn't let that stop him forging a brilliant career in the ring. Froch held multiple super-middleweight world championships, winning 33 of his 35 fights.
The 46-year-old retired after beating George Groves for a second time in 2014 and has gone on to become a successful pundit. Though his life could have turned out very different after a rough upbringing.
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"I waited until I was 24 [to turn pro] because I had no choice," Froch said, via AceOdds. "I didn't box from the age of 15 to the age of 20. I came out of boxing.
"I boxed amateur from like eight years old. I started competing at 10 or 11, whatever it was back then. I think the rules on age have changed.
"So regardless of how old I was, I boxed as a schoolboy and as a junior for five or six years, competitively. Before that, a couple of years. So I had only eight years as a fighter.
"And then we moved to Newark and I didn't box. So when I was 15 years old, I stopped boxing, stopped going down the gym, stopped training.
"I was in pubs, I was playing pool and snooker and playing on fruit machines. And I was outside on the beer garden and I was scrapping every Saturday, even as a 15 year old, I was getting involved in fights because we was in pubs."
Froch learned the tricks of the trade in pub gardens and was helped by having two brothers who weren't afraid to also get in the thick of it.
The Cobra added: "I've got a big brother who used to have a roll around with every now and again, and I've got a little brother as well. We had a rough time, me and my brothers as kids."
- Boxing
- Pubs
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