By Scott Gilfoid: IBF/WBA super middleweight champion Carl Froch (31-2, 22 KO’s) thinks he’s going to connect with a big shot on the chin of unbeaten challenger George Groves (19-0, 15 KO’s) and knock him out once that happens in their fight on November 23rd.
Froch feels this way because of a sparring session he had with Groves three years ago in which Froch knocked Groves down with a glancing shot. Froch says he was only in 2nd gear during the sparring session and holding back the entire time. However, Groves has improved a lot since that time and he’s a much different fighter now compared to when he was just a 22-year-old youngster sparring with the then 33-year-old Froch. There’s a big difference in sparring against a fighter only 22 and one that’s in his mid 20s like Groves is now. You can say that Groves is now hitting his prime.
Groves now sees Froch as an aging fighter who is starting to show the years in his form. Groves is getting Froch right at the perfect moment before Froch is able to see it himself. A lot of fighters aren’t able to recognize when they’re starting to lose their skills unfortunately, and it’s always the young lions that spot the weakness first. Groves has spotted it in Froch and he feels that he’s ready to beaten.
Froch told RingTV “It’s just a matter of time before I catch him and knock him out. Any fighter I’m in there with gets caught flush, with the exception of Ward…I will connect on him [Groves] because that is what I do…He can’t take a punch and simply doesn’t have the resistance.”
It looks like Froch is really overrating his own power. He’s a decent puncher, but he’s not Adonis Stevenson by any stretch of the imagination. Froch’s shots would be more powerful if he had some hand speed, but he’s slow and that makes it easier for his opponents to take his punches.
Froch seems to be forgetting that Groves likes to make his opponents miss with their shots. He doesn’t just stand in front of them looking to bludgeon them to smithereens unless he feels that he has an easy mark that he can blast out like that. As such, Froch is going to have a real problem trying to land his big punches on Groves because he won’t be a stationary target. He’s going to be like Andre Dirrell and make Froch miss with his shots for 12 rounds while paying him back with big punches of his own.
Groves will likely choose to fight Froch in the same way that he did against James DeGale two years ago by hitting and moving away quickly before he gets hit in return. Froch doesn’t have the hand speed to beat Groves if he elects to fight him like that because by the time he goes to hit Groves in return, he’ll have moved out of range of Froch’s reach.
The Groves vs. Froch fight will be taking place at the Phones 4u Arena, in Manchester, United Kingdom.
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