By Scott Gilfoid: IBF/WBA super middleweight champion Carl Froch (32-2, 23 KO’s) had all he could handle last time he fought challenger (19-1, 15 KO’s), and the fight remained very much in doubt until the 9th round when referee Howard John Foster abruptly halted the fight after a brief exchange. Due to the controversial nature of the stoppage, Froch and Groves will meet up for a 2nd time on May 31st at the Wembley Stadium in London, UK.
Unlike last time, Froch thinks he’ll be able to deal with Groves’ power and score a knockout if the 26-year-old fighter comes out aggressively and starts swinging for the fences.
Groves put Froch down on his backside on the canvas in the 1st round last November, and one could very much predict a similar occurrence if Froch leads with his lantern jaw without the sense to keep his guard up. Froch’s low guard hasn’t mattered against most of his fights during his career, but in his fights against talents like Andre Ward and Andre Dirrell, Froch has paid for it by taking terrible punishment to the head. As I said, Groves was also able to blast Froch with lefts and rights to his head after seeing how poor his defense was.
“It’s going to be a mid to late stoppage victory for me unless George Groves does anything erratic and comes out swinging, which he’s talking about doing, but I don’t think he’s going to,” Froch said to Sky Sports. “But if he does, that suits me brilliantly. He is going to walk straight into a sucker punch and fight is going to be over early.”
Froch went onto say that he hopes the fight doesn’t end early because he wants to give the 80,000 fans something to justify the cash that they’ll be dishing out to see this rematch.
Froch should really hoping that Groves doesn’t come out fast, because he did not match up well with the quicker, younger and stronger Groves last November. It wasn’t until Groves faded a little bit in the 8th round that Froch was able to have any kind of success, and that was only because Groves got sloppy by covering up while backing away from exchanges. Had Groves moved away quickly each time he would nail Froch with a shot to the head, he’d have likely continued to pelt him at will like he had in the first 7 rounds.
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