Groves stops Barakat

By Boxing News - 03/23/2013 - Comments

Baker Barakat, George Groves(Photo Wende) By Scott Gilfoid: In a beautiful mismatch, super middleweight George Groves (18-0, 14 KO’s) destroyed a terribly over-matched Baker Barakat (37-14-4, 25 KO’s) in the 2nd round on the undercard of the Arthur Abraham vs. Robert Stieglitz rematch at the GETEC Arena, Magdeburg, Sachsen-Anhalt, Germany.

Groves knocked Barakat down with a picturesque right hand rabbit punch to the back of the head in the 2nd round. After Barakat staggered to his feet, Groves was able to land a handful of hard combinations that ended with the referee prematurely jumping in and stopping the fight with Barakat still on his feet and trying to fight back.

Why the knockdown counted is the main question. Normally when a fighter knocks another one down with a punch to the back of the head the knockdown doesn’t count, and the fighter gets 5 minutes to recover from the shot, but not tonight.

Barakat was hurt by a hard uppercut at the end of the 1st round, and he was fortunate to escape the round without getting knocked out.

All in all, it’s hard to give Groves a lot of credit for the win because of the rabbit punch that knocked Barakat down. That’s not to say that Groves wasn’t going to win the fight because he definitely was. This fight was won for Groves the moment he signed the contract. For me, the rabbit punch tainted the win. When you see a fighter hurt and knocked down by rabbit shot, you kind of put a mental asterisk next to the victory because it’s kind of tainted.



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