By Scott Gilfoid: Matchroom Sport promoter Eddie Hearn finally announced the venue for the May 31st rematch between IBF/WBA super middleweight champion Carl Froch and challenge George Groves. Hearn will be staging it at the Wembley Arena in Wembley, London, United Kingdom. The stadium fits 80,000 fans, so that gives you a pretty good idea of the kind of turnout that Hearn is hoping to get for the fight.
The biggest fight in British boxing history was the 2007 bout between Ricky Hatton and Juan Lazcano at the Manchester Arena. The fight drew 57,000, and that was little more than a mismatch between Hatton and a fringe contender. That the infamous shoelaces fight in which Hatton was given a timeout to have his shoelaces tied while he was in the process of getting batted around the ring by Lazcano. It was the funniest thing I’ve ever seen before in a ring. Hatton is staggered and taking punishment, but then is given time to have his shoelaces tied in the middle of it.
Unless I miss my guess, Froch was probably hoping that the fight would be staged at the Forest Grounds in Nottingham so that he could fight in front of his home crowd. Naturally, Groves wanted no part of that, and he obviously spoke up when that idea was floated by Hearn. I could just see how a Froch-Groves II rematch would go in Nottingham. Froch lands a head shot and the referee dives on Groves and puts him in a headlock to halt the fight. I still can’t believe a what a mess the referee made of the previous Froch-Groves fight last November. If the guy had done his job properly, we wouldn’t need a rematch. It’s just so disappointing when you get a bad referee job.
“It’s brilliant news for many, many reasons,” Groves Sky Sports News about fighting at Wembley Stadium. “This is a huge fight. It needed to go to an impressive stadium and Wembley is top of the list. For me personally, it’s going to be a great night…It was a great night of boxing and I think we’re going to have the same this time round, except I’m going to put Carl Froch to sleep as well. They’ve got that to look forward to as well. He’s got plenty more things to worry about poor Froch, so he doesn’t have to worry about where the fight is taking place.”
Groves should be okay in the rematch as long as he doesn’t clinch too much, and as long as he gets away from Froch in a hurry after throwing shots. I mean, if there’s a good referee working the fight that will prevent Froch from throwing rabbit punches in the clinch, then I don’t see there being any problems with Groves holding every now and then. But I have a feeling it’s going to be another one of those Laissez-faire type referee jobs where anything goes without any restrictions at all in terms of the Marquess of Queensberry Rules.
If Froch is able to brain Groves in clinches with shots to the back of the head or hit on the break, then Groves is going to need to stay on the outside and not hold at all. In an ideal world, the referee would pull Froch to the side and start giving warnings followed by point deductions for these kinds of things, but I didn’t see that happen last November in the Groves-Froch fight. I don’t see it happening on May 31st either. As such, Groves needs to go in there with the sense that it’s going to probably be one of those anything goes types of fights where the rules will go out the window pretty much. Groves just needs to be ready to fight fire with fire. If I was Groves, I’d watch the David Haye vs. John Ruiz fight every day to get ready for the kind of way he might need to fight on May 31st. Groves should pay particularly close attention to Haye’s form in the 1st round when he was knocking Ruiz down left and right.
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