Groves predicts knockout victory over Glen Johnson tonight

By Boxing News - 12/15/2012 - Comments

groves5By Scott Gilfoid: Commonwealth super middleweight champion George Groves (15-0, 12 KO’s) thinks he can do what Carl Froch, Andre Ward, Lucian Bute and Tavoris Cloud couldn’t do and that’s knockout Glen Johnson (51-17-2, 35 KO’s) when the cocky 24-year-old Groves faces the 43-year-old Johnson tonight at the ExCel Arena, Dockland, London, United Kingdom.

Speaking to Sky Sports News, Groves said “Clearly Glencoffe knows how to survive, even if he doesn’t come to survive. Stopping him would make a huge statement. I do expect to stop him don’t expect him to just fall over.”

I hope Groves isn’t counting on getting a knockout because he’s going to be awfully disappointed when Johnson is still standing at the end of this fight. The only fighter that has a chance of scoring a knockout in this fight is Johnson. If he lands one of his big punches, I see Groves getting knocked cold. Besides that, Johnson can also win if he tears up Groves’ skin around his eyes.

We’ve already seen Groves cut in the past, and his skin seems to really redden and swell when he gets hit. With a big puncher like Johnson tagging him all night long, I wouldn’t be surprised if Groves is bleeding like a stuck pig by the 6th. The referee may have to do his duty and halt the fight if Groves starts bleeding too badly.

Groves doesn’t say how he’s going to be able to do this without major power and blazing hand speed, but I guess he figures Johnson is old enough for him to get the KO. I don’t see it happening because I’ve never seen Groves’s knockout a decent quality super middleweight before. Oh yeah, I’ve seen Groves stop a lot of 2nd tier opposition but no 1st tier quality fighters. As such, I have to conclude that Groves is dreaming. He’s not a puncher and I don’t expect him to develop into one at this stage, because you either have the power or you don’t at 24.

Groves isn’t going to become a monster puncher all of a sudden when he turns 25 or 26. That’s probably not going to happen, so I see his knockouts trickling to a halt when he starts facing good opposition starting tonight.

Like I said, I hate to be the one to break this to Groves but there won’t be a knockout tonight by him. If there’s going to be a knockout tonight it’s going to be Johnson who knocks Groves clean out, but not the other way around. Groves doesn’t have the magical ingredient to score a knockout – power.



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