
Carl Froch has declared that his future reign as king of the world super-middleweight division will go on well into his thirties.
British and Commonwealth champion Froch, 29, fights Russian Sergey Tatevosyan over 12 in his home city at the Nottingham Arena on Friday aiming to extend his brilliant unbeaten record to 21 wins.
Froch is top of the bill on the Hennessy Sports and GoldenPalace.com 'Cobra's Hood' event, which also features John O'Donnell's showdown with Stuart Elwell for the vacant English welterweight title.
KO specialist Froch, who claimed his 16th victim inside the distance when he halted Liverpool challenger Tony Dodson in three rounds last November, is ranked third in the world by the WBC and WBO and fifth by the IBF. He hopes to secure a final eliminator for one of those titles by the end of the year.
When he does get to the top, he intends to remain there.
'I'm a clean liver. I don't drink or smoke, so I think I can carry on for another six or seven years," said Nottingham Forest season ticket-holder Froch.
"I plan to be fighting for a major title soon. This is a step up in class for me. Tatevosyan has knocked out the former European champion Rudy Markussen and beaten the current European champion David Gogiya. I want to do a good job on him.
"I don't go up in weight between fights. It's more traumatic for the body to go back down in weight if your weight fluctuates so much. You can only do it a few times and it puts a limit on how long you can fight for.
'But I wouldn’t say anything bad about anyone who does it because after training for ten weeks you are entitled to have a drink and some nice food. But that's not for me.'
Tatevosyan can be expected to bring a significant challenge. He has mixed in high company, is well ranked and is also a southpaw, like other top super-middleweights who Froch may be fighting in the next year.
"I beat a good southpaw in Brian Magee last year so I don't really struggle against them. But it will be good practice for knocking out Joe Calzaghe,' Froch added.