By Scott Gilfoid: George Groves (19-1, 15 KO’s) wants a rematch a day after his fight that he was ahead of against IBF/WBA super middleweight champion Carl Froch (32-2, 23 KO’s) was abruptly stopped in the 9th round by referee Howard John Foster after Groves was hit with some grazing shots and knocked off balance by Froch bumping into him at the Phones 4u Arena in Manchester, UK.
Foster put Groves in a head lock during an exchange for some strange reason and then Froch got in two free shots. Weird stoppage aside, you have to wonder why Foster didn’t disqualify Froch for the hitting Groves while he was defenseless with Foster holding him or why he didn’t disqualify Froch for hitting on the break is also something that really tarnished the fight.
Groves told IFL TV “I should be world champion now. I should be given World champion status. Now I don’t have that. I’m going to be another challenger. I hope to avenge the defeat or pretend it never happened like Carl does. I can beat Carl. I was winning the fight fairly. I was never really buzzed. He rushed in but his shots weren’t landing, they were scuffing. His momentum knocked me off balance more than his punches. He was landing a lot of punches to the back of the head [rabbit punches]; he was punching when the referee said stop. The referee gave a lot of warnings. I expected points to be taken off.”
Groves thinks it was unfair, not only the stoppage, but how the referee let an even more hurt Froch continue after Groves knocked him down with a hard right hand in the 1st. Froch was allowed to continue, but when Groves was hurt slightly, the referee put a headlock around Groves and pulled him into the ropes in one of the strangest stoppages I’ve ever seen before. That was the first time I’ve seen a referee put a headlock on a fighter and put him in a defenseless position while he’s still fighting back.
I think the fight should be a no contest two to Froch nailing Groves with two shots while he was being held by the referee, and also because of the many fouls that Froch used in the fight without the referee failing to do his job and taking points off. If all the referee is going to do is warn, then where is the control for the fight. You might as well have had a parrot in the ring chirping the same thing that Foster was but without doing anything. It was a pretty sad moment for boxing to have that kind of a poor job done by a referee.
I agree with Groves. He should be the champion now and Froch should have been disqualified for his fouling. The fight shouldn’t have been stopped and Froch should have been disqualified either in the 9th or long before that for his fouling. This was far worse than the fouling from Froch in his controversial win over Andre Dirrell in Nottingham four years ago. I thought was bad, but this one was far worse. Froch got away with a ton of fouling and the referee compounded it by halting the fight prematurely. To me, it’s a no contest and I think the British Boxing Board of Control should do the right thing and review it and then give it the proper designation.
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