Carl Froch stripped of WBA belt, rumors of retirement growing stronger

Carl Froch may be the No. 1 active super middleweight in the world, but he's almost officially inactive, and there's plenty of talk about him possibly announcing his retirement in the near future. Along with vacating the IBF super middleweight title earlier this year rather than facing mandatory challenger James DeGale, Froch has now been stripped of the WBA "world" title, as well.

Promoter Eddie Hearn seems to be hinting at retirement for the 37-year-old star:

"There's no guarantee he'll fight again," said promoter Eddie Hearn.

Hearn also told Sky Sports News: "We have no problem with the decision from the WBA. They need to keep their belts active and that's not possible with Carl's current position.

"Carl has been out of the ring for nearly a year now. It's likely we will make a further announcement regarding Carl's future over the next week or so."

Last week when Froch was in Las Vegas for the Mayweather-Pacquiao bonanza, he was asked if he still had the desire to fight in Sin City, which he's never done, and he was non-committal.

"I've had a great career. I've fought all over the world and I've filled Wembley Stadium, the national stadium in my home country," he told said. "To do that, if that's my last fight and I never fight again, I'm going to retire a very happy man."

Today's fight between Felix Sturm and Fedor Chudinov has now been upped from an interim title fight to a "world" title fight. Andre Ward, who has not fought since 2013 and returns on June 20 in a non-title bout, holds the WBA's "super world" championship.