Groves looking to force Froch to fight him

By Boxing News - 12/18/2013 - Comments

groves111By Scott Gilfoid: George Groves (19-1, 15 KO’s) says he’s looking to force his way back into a mandatory position to face Carl Froch (32-2, 23 KO’s) if he doesn’t willingly give him a rematch. Groves doesn’t expect Froch to agree to a second fight.

Groves isn’t saying what he’ll be doing to force the issue, but it probably involves some kind of appeal to have a rematch ordered based on the controversial stoppage by referee Howard John Foster last month when Foster abruptly halted the fight in the 9th round and gave Froch a stoppage win over Groves.

“I’m in the position now where we’re going to seek action which can possibly put me in the mandatory position in which Carl Froch has to fight me or vacate,” Groves said to IFL TV. “If that happens obviously I’ll be fighting or a world title whether it’s against Froch or not. Regardless I’ll be fighting for a world title soon. Obviously my stock has risen and I have plenty of options.”

I wouldn’t hold my breath if I were Groves waiting for Froch to give him a rematch. I don’t see that happening. If Froch is ordered to give Groves a rematch, then I see him vacating rather than fighting him again. It’s just too dangerous for Froch to fight Groves again at this point, because he took a bad beating for 7 of the 9 rounds last month, and Groves now knows how to fight Froch.

You can expect Groves to be better in the rematch than he was before, and he’ll have fixed the defensive lapses that enabled Froch to have his moments. I just see Groves slaughtering Froch if they do fight again, and obviously Froch isn’t going to give Groves another chance to pound him. So if Froch is forced into giving Grove a rematch then you can expect Froch to vacate, and then move onto the last 2-3 fights of his career.

In watching the fight in slow motion, it’s difficult to see what Foster was looking at when he made the decision to halt the fight because Groves merely covered up when Froch came charging forward and bumped into him. Froch then missed some punches and landed a grazing shot resulting in Foster halting the fight. It just looked like Foster made a blow it call and basically ruined the fight by stopping it before the action had concluded.



Comments are closed.