By Florin: I have decided to write this article after witnessing the huge controversy in the aftermath of Saturday’s night grudge match between fellow Brits Carl Froch and George Groves.
Groves started off well and immediately dropped Froch by way of a huge right hand. To his credit Froch picked himself off the canvas and survived the round but he was staggered and could not get his shots flowing until later in the fight. Groves clearly dominated the fight and in my opinion he clearly won most of the rounds by scoring the cleaner shots and showing the better skill.
However by the 9th round Groves was showing signs of being gassed out and started to lose grip on the fight. What followed will of course be debated for years to come. The referee waived the fight off after The Cobra unleashed a huge barrage of powerful clean shots to Groves head that had him hurt and not answering back.
Of course the Monday morning quarterbacks are all over the boxing forums playing the tune of Groves being robbed by a victory and feeling sorry for him. But should we feel sorry for Groves?
As a matter of fact, I think Groves should be thankful to the referee for stopping the fight and I am sure in a couple of years when he is more experienced and a LOT wiser he will know what I mean.
Lets go back to last year and recall what Froch did to Bute. Whoever knows boxing and mostly whoever has ever stepped inside the ring knows that after that dreadful beating Bute has not been and will never be the same fighter again. Science has established that powerful successive concussive shots to the head will leave permanent damage to the brain and the fighters’ reflexes and their ability to take head shots will be greatly diminished.
Groves was all over the place in the 9th round gasping for air while his legs would not help him. He looked a lot like David Haye did in his loss to Carl Thompson years ago. He spent the better part of his gas in the early rounds only to realize midway through the fight he was left with nothing in the tank. In contrast, helped by his superior stamina and better all round conditioning, Froch was rallying and it did not take long for him to smell blood. I am sure had the referee not called the fight off Groves would have had the same fate as Bute’s.
Instead, Groves lived to fight another day and I am asking why should he have taken that sort of unnecessary punishment which could have potentially permanently damaged him and shortened his promising career?? He is only 25 and he has at least 10 years left in the tank if he eats right and trains right, he is definitely a talented kid and there are lots of big fights awaiting him down the line, why risk that just for a couple of minutes of crowd pleasing? He will get his chance to avenge this defeat and if he has learned his lesson next time he meets Froch chances are he will be cruising to victory.
As for the referee, the only thing you can accuse him is of being overly cautious and looking after Groves the way that other unfortunate fighters have not been looked after in the history of this sport. If you have any doubts just ask Magomed Abdulsalamov’s loved ones whether or not they wish the referee had stopped his last fight earlier.
Being a boxing referee is not easy and if the boxer is seriously injured there will always be the question of whether the fight should have been stopped early. On the contrary, if Groves was not injured then the Monday morning judgement is that he should have been allowed to take some more punishment. But I guess this our human nature and has to do with our inability to correctly weigh risk and make decisions when faced with uncertainty. Being per-emptive on a consistent manner as a referee is definitely not crowd pleasing but it certainly does a lot for the career and the health of the troubled boxer.
Comments are closed.