By Scott Gilfoid: After getting arguably robbed of his chance for victory last November, George Groves (19-1, 15 KO’s) may need to take the referee out of the equation when he faces IBF/WBA super middleweight champion Carl Froch (32-2, 23 KO’s) in a rematch on May 31st by knocking out the soon to be 37-year-old Nottingham fighter. Groves wants to KO Froch as fast possible, and get the job done so that it won’t go into the later rounds of the fight again.
Usually it’s the judges that a fighter needs to turn into a spectator due to their ability to take a victory away from them based on poor scoring, but in this case Groves will do himself a big favor if he goes all out in the first three rounds to get Froch out of there quickly.
“I am preparing to get in the greatest possible physical and mental shape possible to destroy Froch in what can only be a three-round fight,” Groves said via ESPN. “I am counting down the days until I’m world super middleweight champion. I am still shocked that Froch has agreed to take the fight. I respect his bravery.”
Last November, Groves dropped Froch with a peach of a right hand in the 1st round. Froch got up on his feet and swayed visibly while the referee looked him over. The fight was allowed to continue, but luckily for Froch the round was almost over otherwise there would have been a good chance that Groves could have scored a knockout in the opening round.
It’s definitely in Groves’ best interest to go after Froch in the first three rounds to empty his gas tank during that time, because Groves has a big advantage in the speed, accuracy, movement and power department. If Groves can go after Froch without stop, he could either knock him out or beat him up so badly that he’ll be too punch drunk for the remainder of the fight to do much.
The one area where Groves needs to work on during training camp is getting away from Froch after he throws a punch. Groves frequently would backup with his hands in front of him and would stand there and let Froch let go at it with a barrage of punches. That’s not how you want to get away from an opponent after you’ve landed or missed a shot.
Groves needs to be able to get away quickly at an angle instead of backing up with his gloves glued to his head like a stationary sparring partner. I’m not sure who taught Groves to do that, but he needs to sit down and watch some videos of the talented Andre Dirrell and Andre Ward and watch what they do after they throw a shot and find themselves in close with their opponents. They don’t just back away slowly while covering up. These talents get away with great speed. Froch’s best moments of the fight came when Groves was backing away after throwing a shot.
Groves made no adjustments to move quickly away at an angle by getting low. Instead, he kept plodding backwards and would stop and let Froch open up with a nonstop salvo of punches. If Groves does that in the rematch, then I can see Froch winning the fight because if you stand in front of Froch while covering up, he’ll throw shots until the referee halts the fight. As we saw last November, it doesn’t matter if you’re hurt or not. The referee will halt the fight just based on seeing Froch throwing a bunch of punches and Groves standing there like a sparring partner instead of moving around the ring like smart fighters do.
Comments are closed.