Froch says Groves turned down rematch offer

By Boxing News - 01/24/2014 - Comments

groves783By Scott Gilfoid: Well, it looks like IBF/WBA super middleweight champion Carl Froch (32-2, 23 KO’s) now has the a good excuse for not giving George Groves (19-1, 15 KO’s) a rematch in 2014. Froch is saying that Groves turned down a big rematch purse offered to him yesterday. Froch is now going to be looking towards having his promoter Eddie Hearn put together a fight against the struggling former WBC middleweight champion Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. in the United States.

“Yesterday, we made a seven figure offer to George Groves for a second fight that would have seen him earn around double that of the first,” Froch said via Fightnews. “Disappointingly, George rejected this offer so we are continuing our talks with Top Rank and HBO regarding Chavez Jr.”

I’d like to see what this offer was so that I could see for my own eyes if this was a fair deal. You’ve got to believe that if Groves turned it down, then it had to have been because he realized what he brought to the table in this fight. If the fight is going to bring in 10 million pounds that can be split between the two fighters, you’ve got to figure that Groves deserves at least 4 million pounds.

If Groves is offered below that then, yeah, it’s not worth it for him to say yes to the fight. Froch’s tune will change once he fights Chavez Jr. and gets beaten. Froch will then badly need the Groves fight to help resurrect his career at home in the UK.

Fighting Chavez Jr. will be a mistake for Froch. It’s not a good idea for a number of reasons, starting with Chavez Jr’s much superior inside fighting ability. Froch can’t fight worth a lick on the inside, as we saw in his loss to Andre Ward in 2011. About the best that Froch can do on the inside is to throw rabbit punches to the back of the head. Chavez Jr. will light Froch up on the inside and tear his body apart. If Froch tries the rabbit stuff on the inside, Chavez Jr. will have him on the canvas groaning from pain from a shot to the midsection. The other reasons why Chavez Jr. is a bad idea for Froch is because Chavez Jr. has a steel chin and will be able to walk Froch down to punish him all night.

Froch won’t be able to slow Chavez Jr. down for an instant, and we’ll likely see Froch take a great deal of punishment against a motivated Chavez Jr. Another thing Froch doesn’t realize is that he’ll be facing a cruiserweight sized Chavez Jr. if they face each other, and that’s something that Froch won’t like one bit. Froch has been reluctant to fight light heavyweights for fear of him giving away weight to them, but against Chavez Jr., he’ll be fighting a crusierweight, not a light heavyweight. Froch’s skinny stick-like frame will be be like a punching bag for Chavez Jr. to nail with body shots all night long, and I see this fight going really badly for Froch.

Groves may not get the Froch rematch this time around, but he’ll be there for him to fight later in 2014. By then, Froch will likely be still licking his wounds from the loss to Chavez Jr. and nursing his wounded pride as he limps into a Groves rematch. Believe me, I see Groves getting whatever he’s asking for when the two start to negotiate after Froch’s loss to Chavez Jr.