Carl Froch lands the knockout punch in the eighth round of his historic bout with George Groves in Wembley Stadium. Photo by Matthew Lewis/Getty Images

Former super middleweight titleholder Carl Froch insists he will put impending retirement plans on hold for a fight against either Gennady Golovkin or James DeGale.

The 37-year-old Englishman has not been in a ring since May 2014, when he thumped George Groves at Wembley Stadium. An announcement later this week was expected to confirm the end of his glittering career.

However, in an interview with TalkSPORT late Monday, Froch (33-2, 24 knockouts) revealed he is still considering one last outing – with new IBF 168-pound holder DeGale and undefeated Kazakhstani middleweight star Golovkin (33-0, 33 KOs) on his radar.

While Froch and his Matchroom promoter, Eddie Hearn, had already muted the latter of those options as a genuine possibility, the idea of him facing compatriot DeGale is news. That had always been dismissed out of hand.

Until now. For having been suitably unimpressed with the way DeGale (21-1, 14 KOs) outpointed Andre Dirrell last month to win the IBF strap, which Froch had vacated earlier in the year, the man from Nottingham suddenly seems interested in a scrap against the 29-year-old west Londoner.

“Retirement is always on my mind and I was hoping to make a decision this week actually, but it looks like I’m not going to be making that announcement,” said the Cobra. “I would love nothing more than to show the British people what I would do against someone like James DeGale.

“He’s the newly crowned IBF champion, he’s got my old belt, and it would be nice to go out and say, ‘Yes, he’s won the belt, but look what I can do against him.’ I know what would happen in that fight. That’s an easy fight for me. He’s a bit of a novice pro.

“I thought DeGale just did what he had to do to win the against Dirrell. I thought he could have pressed it home a little bit more when he got the knockdown, when he seemed off the pace and on the back foot towards the end.

“If he fights someone like me, he wouldn’t get past round eight on that performance. He would get absolutely knocked out.”

As for attempting to become the first to beat WBA middleweight holder Golovkin, Froch is definitely up for that challenge.

“The only reason I’d like that fight is because it would be a really difficult fight to win,” said Froch. “He’s tough kid, he’s unbeaten and he’s got a knockout punch. I don’t think many people would give me a chance and, you know what, that excites me. I like that.

“Call me stupid, call me brave, call me what you want ÔǪ that’s a fight I can win. There are a lot of factors involved. If I could get myself fit, which is something I think I could do but wouldn’t really know until I started – I’ve never had a year out of boxing before – then I’d fight anybody.”

Harry Pratt is on Twitter: @gharrypratt