You know what I think he really believed it. Much like a psychopath or megalomaniac truly believes he rules the world.
I thought Kelly Pavlik would have made another run at a title. I picked Bute to beat Froch. Boy was I wrong.
I consider myself to be a reasonably sensible person; but I did the very same thing after Audley demolished Danny Williams in three rounds in their rematch. To my shame, I bought into Aud's post-fight rallying cry of "I'll be Undisputed: get behind me!" to the point that, I actually did believe he had a puncher's chance against Haye if only he picked his moments and let his hands go (how wrong could one person possibly be, eh? ) This, of course, was before I found out that the result of the Williams rematch flattered Audley massively, because Danny had done a good chunk of his training at an army camp, yet had somehow contrived to gain weight during that camp.
I don't watch that much boxing like that anymore - I read articles more and catch barely enough boxing just to keep me informed about what's going on in the sport.