By Scott Gilfoid: Unbeaten super middleweight champion George Groves (18-0, 14 KO’s) is saying his next fight on the Carl Froch vs. Mikkel Kessler undercard on May 25th will be an official eliminator for the WBO 168 lb. title held by Robert Stieglitz.
Groves now has finally gotten a clue that he’s going to be likely bypassed by Stieglitz for his next fight, which is looking like it’s going to be a third fight with Arthur Abraham. And who knows whether the winner of that fight will bother fighting Groves.
If the title changes hands yet again, that’s another excuse to bypass Groves. It’s kind of funny actually, but also pretty sad that the WBO will likely let it happen.
Groves said to thesun.co.uk “I’ve been knocking on the door for a while but once I am the No 1 challenger someone will have to open it. My next fight should be an official eliminator to face Stieglitz.”
It looks like Groves’ promoter Eddie Hearn has been putting ideas in Groves head about having him lock himself in as the mandatory challenger like Hearn had Kell Brook to by fighting some god awful contender the International Boxing Federation had ranked in the top for some odd – but convenient for Brook – reason.
My question is who will the WBO have Groves fighting in an eliminator bout? Let’s take a look at the WBO’s top 10 and we can guess which guy will be the fighter that Groves will be facing:
1. Vacant
2. Groves
3. James DeGale
4. Lucian Bute
5. Ezequiel Osvaldo Maderna
6. Sakio Bika
7. Willbeforce Shihepo
8. Isaac Ekpo
9. Maxom Vlasov
10. Darren Barker
Okay, DeGale won’t take the fight, and Bute and Maderna are both busy with other fights. That leaves Bika, and some guys I’ve never heard of before in Shihepo and Ekpo. Don’t tell me that Groves will fight one of them on May 25th. Bika, I can see as a big fight for Groves, and I would respect that, but there’s no way Hearn is going to put Groves in with a talent like Bika because the chances are high Groves will lose.
It should be up to the WBO who faces Groves in the WBO eliminator, but I see Shihepo, Ekpo or Vlasov getting selected. Oh boy, some big fight that will be. An obscure opponent in what would be pretty much of a joke of an eliminator bout, just like the Kell Brook was in when he faced Hector David Saldivia in an IBF eliminator last October. I still can’t forget how terrible Salidivia was, and I can’t understand how or why the IBF ranked him in the top 5.
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