Carl Froch has warned Carl Frampton against the same mistakes he made going into his first encounter with George Groves.

‘The Cobra’ says he expected an easy innings against his fellow Brit, who is now coached by Frampton’s coach Shane McGuigan, back in 2013.

Indeed the respected Nottingham hard man felt the Londoner wasn’t worthy of challenging for his IBF super middleweight title and all but resented having to fight his junior.

Froch eventually claimed victory, but had to get up the canvas to do so and his hand was raised after a controversial stoppage. There was nothing controversial about how he took out Groves in the rematch, but Froch claims Frampton can’t have that same air of entitlement and over confidence going into Saturday’s IBF and WBA unification clash.

“Here we are, heading to Manchester and it has a very familiar feeling for me. Remember when I was fighting George Groves for the first time I was expected to win, it was supposed to be easy, no problem at all,” Froch said in his Sky Sports column. 

“I wonder if the same thing is happening to Frampton. But what happens when Quigg is suddenly in front of him, laying those big hooks to the head and body, is hard as nails and walks through brick walls?

“It happened to me and suddenly it was nowhere near as easy as I thought it would be. Mind you, in my head Groves was supposed to be an easy fight and I was genuinely convinced I shouldn’t even have been fighting him.

“Maybe Frampton isn’t thinking anything like that. But when he arrives in Manchester it might dawn on him. That is why it is impossible to side with either of them… yet. I am like a normal fight fan; I like Frampton and I like Quigg, but I do think I have swayed away from Carl’s corner and see it more as a 50/50 fight leaving me well and truly on the fence.”