Carl Froch says he thought it was “a wind-up” when he was first told he was being inducted into the International Boxing Hall of Fame.

Froch hung up his gloves with the WBA and IBF belts still in his possession.

“Anyone that wants to call me a has-been now has to realise that I’m a legend, a living legend,” Froch said.

“I’m not being big-headed. When you look at my career and resume, if I do say so myself, it stands out massively among the best of the best in world boxing.

“I never got the seal of approval, that rubber stamp I’ve now got.

“To be inducted into the International Boxing Hall of Fame puts my name up there with the likes of Sugar Ray Leonard, Roberto Duran, Thomas Hearns, Marvin Hagler – the fighters from the late 70s and early 80s who I admired so much and grew up watching.

“To join the Hall of Famers, the best fighters to have ever walked this earth, and my name to be with theirs, is just brilliant.”

‘Joining all the big boys’

Froch, better known in the ring as ‘The Cobra’, admits he has “to pinch myself” when talking about the honour, which will see him and other members of ‘the class of 2023’ be formally inducted into the Hall of Fame at a gala event in New York in June.

“When I got the phone call to say I was getting inducted, I though it was a wind-up,” Froch told BBC East Midlands Today.

“I slowly realised that this is the time of year they do it and I’d been on the short list a few years and hadn’t quite made it.

“I was unsure, this guy has an American accent and he is talking about Canastota [New York), then I thought ‘this is genuine’.

“It was amazing to have the conversation and have it confirmed that I was joining all the big boys.”

The Nottingham fighter then make a phone call of his own to friend Lennox Lewis, the three-time former heavyweight world champion.

“I rang him up and told him I’d be joining him in the Hall of Fame,” Froch said.

“It means a great deal. It’s massive.”