By Scott Gilfoid: George Groves (19-1, 15 KO’s) has been noticing that IBF/WBA super middleweight champion Carl Froch (32-2, 23 KO’s) hasn’t been making many media appearances to help promote their upcoming rematch on May 31st at Wembley Stadium, and he feels that Froch is basically hiding.
Groves doesn’t say why the 36-year-old Froch isn’t out and about trying to drum up interest in their rematch, but one can guess it might be due to the way Groves appeared to get the better of Froch in their media appearances together before their last fight in November.
“He is not doing many appearances lately, we haven’t heard much from him, he’s sort of trying to hide away,” Groves said to Sky Sports. “It’s very spiteful I think of his promoter Eddie Hearn to send him to London for this fight. He already is in a fight he knows he can’t win, but he is also going to have to face a London crowd.”
Well, I hope Froch starts making more appearances to help market the fight next month because that would be bad if Groves is all by himself in trying to increase interest in the rematch.
Groves thinks that it’ll be tough on Froch with him not fighting in front of a supportive crowd like he’s grown accustomed to in fighting in his home city of Nottingham. Groves believes that the lack of fan support will hurt Froch in this fight.
I doubt that Froch will lose due to the lack of fan applause. I mean, if Groves sits down on his punches early on like he did last November, it won’t matter where the fight was staged. Heck, they could put the fight in Froch’s living room in Nottingham, and he’d still get knocked out by Groves. The fans will have nothing to do with the outcome of this fight. If Groves is the better many on May 31rd, then that’s all that matters. I don’t think booing or a lack of applause is going to be the reason why Froch wins or loses the fight.
What could have much more of an effect on the outcome of this fight is the referee. If you get another referee who jumps on Groves to halt the fight the moment he’s bumped by Froch, then that would have much more of an effect than the crowd noise. Froch was wobbling around the ring in the 1st round last November, and the referee was fine with that. But then later on, Groves gets bumped by Froch in the 9th round, and you’ve got the referee putting Groves in a headlock to stop the fight. The importance of having a good referee working the fight can’t be overstated.
They need a referee that can make sound decisions, and who can control the fouling. Last November, Froch got away with an awful lot of fouling without being warned or penalized. If you have a referee that lets Froch or Groves foul away on May 31st, then the fight might as well turn into an MMA affair with both guys grappling on the canvas, because we won’t be watching a boxing match. It’ll be pure anarchy in the ring.
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