By Scott Gilfoid: Middleweight contenders Andy Lee and Martin Murray are picking undefeated George Groved (19-0, 15 KO’s) to defeat IBF/WBA super middleweight champion Carl Froch (31-2, 22 KO’s) on November 23rd at the Phones 4u Arena in Manchester, UK. Lee thinks the 36-year-old Froch has gotten long in the tooth, been in too many tough fights and is facing a guy with too much defensive skills for him to succeed against. Murray just flat out thinks Groves will win.
Andy Lee said Sky Ringside “Groves style-wise is all wrong for Carl. He’s mobile, good head movement, variety punching, and Carl is sliding; he’s aged a little bit. He’s been in a lot of wars. Groves is fresh.”
Martin Murray said “I think Groves is going to beat him.”
I think I have to agree with Murray and Lee. I believe that Froch had his moment in the sun and now it’s Groves’ time to take over. It goes without saying of course that Froch’s legacy is going to be in tatters with a loss to Groves. That’s no slight against Groves, but this isn’t the fighter that you would think that would be the one that brought Froch’s reign to an end. Somehow I figured it would be a talent like Andre Dirrell or Andre Ward that would come in and whip Froch to end his title reign. Of course, if Froch isn’t fighting those guys then it’s awfully hard for them to end his reign. Groves is probably more than good enough to do the same job on Froch.
In Froch’s appearance on Sky Ringside yesterday, he appeared to be fighting hard to keep from crying in a one-on-one meeting with Groves. That’s probably the closest I’ve seen someone coming to crying without doing it. I give Froch a lot of credit for not letting the water works take over, but at the same time he did not come across as confident and self assured. Froch looked like a fighter with some serious doubts about this fight.
Groves appears to have really gotten into Froch’s head with their two meetings, and I think Froch looked like a beaten fighter by the end of the Ringside special. That doesn’t mean Froch’s going to lose the fight, but I don’t think it’s helped him one bit for him for what he went through last night.
Groves seemed to be toying with Froch mentally by picking apart his arguments, staring him down, and generally having his way. Froch should have turned around to face Groves and stare him in the eyes when they were talking, but he wouldn’t or couldn’t do it for some reason. I guess you spin that anyway you want, but I thought it looked bad for Froch that he wouldn’t at least look at Groves when he was taunting him. On a couple of occasions, Froch did look at Groves in the eyes, but Froch immediately closed his eyes as if in pain and turned his back around and looked really emotionally charged. It was strange to watch and it was difficult to figure out what was eating Froch.
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