(Photo credit: HBO) By Scott Gilfoid: George Groves (19-1, 15 KO’s) doesn’t see himself wearing down against Carl Froch (32-2, 23 KO’s) in their rematch this weekend like he did the last time they fought. Groves figures he’s going to improve each and every round, and his main focus will be to give Froch a methodical beating by the numbers to make sure that he gets the victory.
“I’m going to get better and better with every round,” Groves said via Sky Sports. “I’m not going to give everything away but round on round, I will get better and it’s up to Carl to hang in there. I can go 12 rounds if needs be. It’ll be one-sided from the start.”
Boy, that’s a welcome relief. Groves looked as tired as I’ve seen a fighter in their first fight, and in looking at that fight, I don’t see how Groves could fight a 12 round fight in their rematch. Groves looked gassed in a way that would suggest that he would always look tired no how many times he fights Froch. The problem that Groves has is that he’s looked tired in many of his other fights as well, and not just the Froch fight.
Groves got tired in his fight against James DeGale in 2011, and ended up looking bad enough to lose the last six rounds after getting off to a fast start. Groves also faded in his fight against Glen Johnson in 2012 after unloading everything but the kitchen sink on him in the first 6 rounds of the fight.
“You’ll see as complete a performance as possible on Saturday night and certainly a lot of people will sit up and take note,” Groves said. “I plan to arrive as a legitimate world champion and someone to be feared and chased. I want to be a great ambassador for British boxing on the world stage.”
It would be interesting if Groves gives Froch a tough fight for all 12 rounds instead of just 6 of the rounds like last time. But I’ll believe it when I see it, because I just can’t see Groves doing any better than giving 6 good rounds and then fighting the last 6 rounds on fumes. It might not matter if Groves runs out of gas in the second half of the fight if he can give Froch enough of a beating in the first six rounds to rack up the points, but Froch isn’t each to knockdown and I don’t think Groves can count on doing that in this fight.
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