Froch admits prolonging bouts

Boxing : Former two-time super-middleweight world champion Carl Froch has admitted deliberately prolonging fights so members…

Boxing: Former two-time super-middleweight world champion Carl Froch has admitted deliberately prolonging fights so members of his family could benefit from betting.

Froch claims he could have stopped Ruben Groenewald earlier than he did during a Commonwealth title defence in 2005. The Nottingham fighter said he allowed the South African to survive in the fourth round because members of his family had bet on him winning in the fifth.

Froch told the BBC: "I've done it more than one occasion and it was round five but that's not illegal.

"I can say, 'right, I'll stop this kid in round five'. If I'm good enough to do that then fair enough. I don't gamble but my brothers and my friends, they did quite well off it.

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"I can openly say that because if I'm good enough to step on the gas in round five and force the stoppage then that's my privilege, and that's what I did in this particular fight at the Arena for the Commonwealth title defence.

"But the problem with that is I held him up in round four. He was there for the taking and I held him up, I got him with a shot, I could have ended up getting done myself in round four."