Should Froch gives Groves a rematch?

By Boxing News - 11/28/2013 - Comments

froch7343By Thomas Cowan: On Saturday night, one of the biggest fights in history to take place on British shores ended in controversy and anger. Carl Froch won the fight and kept his belts and George Groves lost his unbeaten record, but gained a lot of fans in the process. The way in which the fight was stopped led to Groves feeling “gutted and angry”, with many British boxing fans feeling robbed of a satisfying end to a great fight.

To back up a bit, after promising to stand in the centre of the ring with Froch at the pre-fight press conference, the cocky young pretender Groves was as good as his words, heavily dropping the normally iron-chinned Froch in the first round. Froch has been dropped by Jermain Taylor and hurt by Mikkel Kessler but a huge right hand from Groves had him staggering around like a drunk in a way that has never been seen.

Froch saw out first round but was badly stunned by his younger rival again in the second and was looking old and out of his depth. Froch recovered and started to have more success after the first two rounds but Groves was still landing the more meaningful, accurate punches and seemed to win 4 of the first 5 rounds. The 6th was an absolute war, with both fighters landing heavy shots and fighting at a ferocious pace. The crowd were on their feet at the end of a fantastic round with many feeling whoever came out of that round the stronger could force a late stoppage.

In the 7th and 8th, Groves seemed to be tiring. His punches weren’t hurting Froch like they had been in the first half of the fight, and he was becoming increasingly flat footed. The fight was still highly competitive, but the aging Cobra was building momentum. He capitalized on this in the 9th, catching Groves with a big shot and then unloading a barrage on the ropes. Groves leaned forward to hold and referee Howard Foster stepped in to halt the fight.

The arena erupted in boos and Groves was absolutely furious. He had been ahead on all judges cards, by one point on two and five on the other, and he was still competitive in their fight. He was hurt, but certainly not defenseless and the premature stoppage and him calling for a rematch to put things right.

While I feel the stoppage was premature, and robbed the fighters and fans of a grandstand finish, I do think it needs to be put into context. With Groves only one point up on two of the scorecards (which was extremely harsh – I had him 4 points up), a victory was looking unlikely. If he would have survived the onslaught from Froch without getting knocked down, the scores would have been level on two cards. This leaves a tiring Groves need to win two of the last three rounds against a relentless Froch. It is not impossible that Groves would have recovered, but he was not looking the favorite at the time of stoppage.

I’m not denying Groves was unfairly cheated, but let’s compare this to another UK fight which ended in controversy, Ricky Burns vs Raymundo Beltran. Burns won the first two rounds, but suffered a broken jaw and except for a brief recovery in the 6th and 7th rounds, was out-boxed for the remainder of the fight and was down from a Beltran left hook in the 8th. Despite clearly losing the fight, one judge gave Burns a draw and American Carlos Ortiz gave him a bizarre 8 rounds to 4 victory and the fight was declared a draw. Beltran beats Burns and was robbed of his victory, not a possible victory. The same happened to Manny Pacquiao against Tim Bradley and has happened many other times throughout history. On Saturday, referee Howard Foster made a split second decision, a terrible decision, which robbed Groves of a satisfying finish. However, it can hardly be compared to judges seeing events unfold totally differently from what is actual happening for 36 full minutes.

Groves is not the most unfortunate when it comes to bad refereeing decisions either. Julio Cesar Chavez Sr was losing to Meldrick Taylor when the American was stopped despite being on his fight and the final bell being two seconds away. For a British example, Nigel Benn’s thrilling but tragic win over Gerald McClellan should have been stopped in round one when Benn was on the canvas for nearly 20 seconds.

Groves has a right to be upset, but this was hardly the worst robbery in history and Froch does not have to give him a rematch. He had a mandatory obligation to fight a young, unbeaten up-and-comer, he took it when many fighters would have vacated and he won. It wasn’t him who stopped the fight early and if he now wishes to move on to unification fights against Sakio Bika or Robert Stieglitz, or fights that would push him up the pound-for-pound rankings like Sergio Martinez or Bernard Hopkins, he has that right. In the unlikely event that Tony Bellew defeats Adonis Stevenson this weekend live on HBO, Bellew vs Froch becomes a massive fight in Britain and relatively interesting fight internationally. Due to a relatively poor performance from Froch on Saturday, I think avenging defeat to Andre Ward, or taking on knockout sensation Gennady Golovkin is now out of the question.

Groves is rightfully calling for a rematch after his terrific performance, and with the money available from pay-per-view buys he may well get one, but he is just one of many options for Froch and saying things like “either Carl gives me a rematch or retires” will not help him.



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