Carl Froch on 'play fight' Tyson Fury vs. Francis Ngannou fight, Conor McGregor, Jake Paul, more

Former super-middleweight world champion Carl Froch has some opinions about the state of combat sports today and they aren't all happy ones.

While speaking with bettingsites.co.uk, Froch spoke about the "play fight" between Tyson Fury and Francis Ngannou set for Oct. 28 in Saudi Arabia.

“I think it’s a ‘play fight’ and a bit ‘joke shop’ fight, which I’ve made my opinion quite clear on regarding this Fury vs Ngannou fight – it’s not real boxing, it’s not proper boxing but I think we are now starting to understand it." he said.  

Though he's not all that impressed by the fight itself, he is impressed with promoter Frank Warren for making it happen.

“I think maybe it was a cunning plan by Frank Warren – because what he’s done is got this Ngannou fight lined up that boxing purists are not very happy about but in the meantime he’s announced Tyson Fury is fighting Oleksandr Usyk," he said. “So people are going to watch the Ngannou fight with one eye on the shape and the performance – thinking of what’s around the corner with the fights quite close together."

He continued, “A bit of a masterplan, genius from Frank Warren, because at the end of the day, Fury is getting paid his career-biggest payday for a ‘move around’ and I’ve said before I’d have done the same in my career.”

There will be no titles on the line in the fight but it will be a legit boxing match, not an exeption event.

Carl Froch willing to fight Jake Paul ... for the check

Despite Froch's criticism of the Fury vs. Ngannou fight, he's not opposed to a fight with Jake Paul, citing his desire for the paycheck that would come with a fight like that.

“If you were going to get your head smashed by Jean Pascal for X amount of money you can go and fight Jake Paul for 10x that – with the Jake Paul being a warm-up fight for someone like me as Jake Paul couldn’t even lace my boots. In fact I would even let Jake Paul lace my boots – that would be disrespecting my boots," he said. “So, I’d fight him – earn a fortune because of what’s going on at the minute in the world and easy money and onto a proper world title fight."

Carl Froch thinks Conor McGregor should retire

Froch also spoke on former two division UFC champion Conor McGregor who is set to make his return to competition in 2024.

“I think he realizes now he’s past his best and he can still generate wealth but I don’t think that’s in competitive MMA. He’s got nothing to prove," he said.

He continued, "He’s a legend of the game and he’s made enough coin but he’s not officially retired. I’ve got a lot of admiration for him. I give him stick and we talk about stuff. We had a little back and forth as he can’t box (can he?), so if he tried to box me he’d get absolutely hammered which is nothing personal – it’s just factual – and nothing against him.”