By Scott Gilfoid: In a total blow it move by the referee, IBF/WBA super middleweight champion Carl Froch (32-2, 23 KO’s) was given credit for a 9th round TKO win over George Groves (19-1, 15 KO’s) in one of the worst stoppages that you’ll ever see tonight at the Phones 4u Arena, Manchester, United Kingdom.
The referee Howard Foster totally blew it by halting the fight while Groves was still fighting back. Words can’t describe how badly the referee screwed up in stopping this fight.
Immediately after the fight was halted, the fans booed loudly in disbelief for the next 5 minutes at how badly the referee made a mess of things by halting the fight while Groves was still fighting back.
Groves dropped Froch in the 1st round with a big right hand to the head. You have to ask the question why the referee halted the fight in the 9th instead of in the 1st round when Froch was staggering all over the ring after getting knocked down. To be sure, Groves was hurt in the 9th but he wasn’t staggering like Froch was. Why did the referee halt it when Groves was hurt but not when Froch was hurt.
There needs to be a rematch but with a different referee working the fight because this guy was clueless.
Froch was royally booed the entire time while he was being interviewed after the fight. It was kind of funny where he kept saying the referee made the right decision in halting the fight prematurely. I’m not sure that Froch really got it that the fans thought it was a horrible stoppage, so each time Froch would crow about his win, the fans would boo him even louder. It just made Froch look silly because his win was considered illegitimate by a lot of fans.
The best thing that Froch said was “Eddie [Hearn], maybe we’ll have a rematch and sort it out.”
Froch must feel pretty bad that his win was booed and that no one sees his win as being a real victory.
You can make an argument that Froch should have lost at least 3 points for his hitting on the break and the use of elbows in the fight. I saw Froch nail Groves and over again when the referee was calling for a break. The elbows Froch threw just made it look worse, especially the referee giving Froch pointless warnings without taking points off.
In a rematch, if there is one, Groves needs to get better at getting away to the outside after he would land shots. He didn’t look good when he could come inside for a clinch after he would throw his shots. Froch was able to nail Groves with a lot of punches, especially when he would just cover up instead of moving away by taking an angle. Groves was backing up while covering up, and that wasn’t a smart thing to do. It enabled Froch to flurry on him.
I think Groves needs to get with Andre Ward’s trainer Virgil Hunter so that he can teach him how to fight on the inside because this would have been a much easier fight for Groves if he had even a shred of inside fighting skills.
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