Groves vs. Ndiaye on EPIX in U.S & BoxNation in UK on March 16th

By Boxing News - 02/21/2013 - Comments

groves44By Scott Gilfoid: George Groves (16-0, 12 KO’s) will be looking to grab the vacant EBU super middleweight title on March 16th against Mouhamed Ali Ndiaye (22-1, 13 KOs) on the undercard of the Ricky Burns vs. Miguel Vazquez in a fight that will be televised on Epix/EpixHD.com in the United States, and BoxNation in the UK.

Groves, #1 WBO, is ranked highly by the World Boxing Organization and he may get a title shot against WBO super middleweight champion Arthur Abraham in 2013. It’s possible the fight could get dragged out until 2014 if Abraham is able to maneuver around it.

Abraham has already slipped in one optional title defense against fringe contender Mehdi Bouadla last December, and now he’s fighting a rematch against former WBO champion Robert Stieglitz on March 23rd.

Presumably, Abraham should be giving Groves a shot at his title by late Summer, but I suspect he’ll slip in another optional defense to finish out 2013.

Groves said to ESPN “I’ll be looking to fight the winner next.”

Here’s the deal. Even if Groves does get the fight with the winner of the Abraham-Stieglitz fight in 2013, I can’t see him beating either one of them. Those guys can actually fight and Groves, as we saw in his fight with Glen Johnson, he fights in a wild way just throwing punches hoping for the best.

At the upper world level, you have to fight with intelligence. I mean, this isn’t the European/domestic level we’re talking about you know, and I don’t think Groves has the boxing IQ to beat Abraham or Stieglitz.

Groves was supposed to have gotten a shot against Stieglitz when he was the WBO title holder, but injured his nose during a sparring session that wiped out the fight.
Ndiaye, 33, is pretty much just a stay busy fight for Groves. In other words, it’s a backwards step in his career where he’s reversing gears and facing a guy that isn’t as good as his last opponent 43-year-old Glen Johnson.

I can kind of understand the move because Groves looked awful against Johnson, so he needs as much experience as possible so he can learn how to fight better. His trainer Adam Booth looked lost in the corner. I don’t know what he was doing but it looked like Groves was a rudderless ship on an ocean and just going without any real direction.



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