Carl Froch has raised eyebrows once again after trolling yet another boxer who has announced their retirement - this time, former IBF super-middleweight champion Lucian Bute.When he’s not knocking out George Groves in front of 80,000 people in a sold-out Wembley Stadium (has he mentioned it?) he’s known for his antics on Twitter, and some boxing fans have had enough.Thirty nine-year-old Bute announced his retirement this week having not stepped foot in the ring for two years, and Froch had his say, tweeting: “Good luck to @butelucian in his retirement. A true gent and a great fighter. It was a pleasure to Cobra him in 2012.”Bute’s decline as a boxer came at the hands of Froch himself in 2012, when the Romanian champion had a record of 30-0 with nine IBF defences, but ‘The Cobra’ overwhelmed him and Froch gave him his first loss of his career.Bute went on to lose five times in his last seven fights and has now decided to hang up the gloves.
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The decision has caused the boxing world to pay tribute to one of the great fighters, and fans weren’t happy with Froch’s response.
One Twitter user responded: “I used to enjoy listening to Froch, now he is just annoying, not to mention repetitive and boring.”
Another said: “Couldn’t just stop at wishing him well and being a gent yourself. Had to get in a snide comment on the back of it. You were a decent boxer, but Joe Calzaghe would have taken you to school.”
This comes just weeks after legendary British boxer James DeGale announced his retirement and wasn’t quite shown the respect that he deserves from Froch either.
Speaking about DeGale, Froch said: "If we’d have met in my career, I’d have been too strong for him. I’d have backed him up onto the ropes, he’d have sat there with his guard up. I’d have absolutely smashed him to bits."
Back in January, Froch and undefeated former boxing champion Andre Ward got into a heated Twitter spat over Froch’s distasteful reaction to Groves retiring too.
Amongst paying his respects to Groves, Froch also said: “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.”
Ward responded saying: “This dude is the biggest hater. You’re over 40 bro, let it go. The arrogance is off the charts!”
The retired Froch has clearly been ruffling a few feathers, but with the boxing world's focus put back on him once again, he knows exactly what he’s doing.