By Scott Gilfoid: IBF/WBA super middleweight champion Carl Froch took a shot at #4 WBC George Groves (19-2, 15 KOs) for his WBC super middleweight eliminator bout this month on September 20th against #3 WBC Christopher Rebrasse (22-2-3, 6 KOs) at the Wembley Arena in London, UK. Froch says the fight hasn’t sold well.
Froch says Groves is having a hard time selling 2,000 tickets for the fight. It’s unknown if this is in fact true or not, but it wouldn’t be surprising given that Groves is coming off of back to back knockout losses, and he’s fighting an obscure fighter in 28-year-old Rebrasse of France.
We’re not exactly talking about a household name with Rebrasse, and that’s not helping matters.
“Without blowing my own trumpet, people would come to see me. George Groves proves that. He’s struggling to sell a couple of thousand tickets for his next fight at Wembley Arena, never mind 80,000 at Wembley Stadium,” Froch said to the Nottinghampost.com.
It’s not the right opponent for Groves to bring in any kind of a large number of fans. I mean, I doubt Froch would be able to assemble more than a few thousand fans if he were facing a guy like Rebrasse. It’s going to be a different story if Groves can get past Rebrasse to earn a title shot against WBC super middleweight champion Anthony Dirrell later this year or early 2015.
That’s a fight that will bring in a lot of fans, although I have my doubts that Dirrell will go for the idea of fighting Groves in the UK rather than the United States. Anthony Dirrell saw what happened to his brother Andre Dirrell when he came to the UK and was beaten by a highly controversial decision to Froch in Nottingham.
Anthony Dirrell would have the speed and power advantage over Groves when and if that fight takes place. It’s hard to see Groves being able to have any kind of success against Dirrell due to his chin problem.
As for Froch, he’s talking about taking it one fight at a time with his career. He’s likely to fight James DeGale next in a fight that is difficult to get excited about. Froch wanted to fight in Las Vegas, Nevada against Julio Cesar Chavez Jr but that fight isn’t going to happen.
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