By Scott Gilfoid: With his #1 WBC ranking, super middleweight contender George Groves (21-2, 16 KOs) says he has little interest in fighting a rematch against his fellow countryman James DeGale for a second bout between them.
Groves says he’d be open to an offer from DeGale’s promoter Eddie Hearn, but he’s still mostly interested in facing WBC super middleweight champion Anthony Dirrell for his title.
Hearn is eager to make a match between Groves and DeGale. However, for that bout to have any chance of taking place, Hearn would likely have to give Groves the lion’s share of the cash for the bout, because he doesn’t seem too interested in taking a 50-50 offer.
Groves can point to the large crowds that he and IBF/WBA 168lb Carl Froch attracted in their two fights together to show that he brings in bigger numbers at the gate than DeGale. I think Froch had a lot to do with the huge crowds the fight attracted, but I think Groves is convinced that he had a lot to do with the fan turnout for the fight.
“I’ve beat DeGale already and I think that fight is always going to be there. There is no rush for it,” Groves said to the Kilburntimes.co.uk. “I’d much rather have a world title fight against Dirrell than a rematch against DeGale.”
I don’t think it really matters that Groves isn’t fighting DeGale fight now. I mean, it’s not as if they can fight for Froch’s IBF or anything. If they face each other next, then it would just be a regular fight without a title on the line, because #2 IBF Andre Dirrell is the guy that DeGale would need to fight for Froch’s IBF title. If DeGale and Hearn try to insert Groves into the mix in place of Dirrell, I don’t see the IBF going along with the program and just looking the other way.
Groves is ranked below Dirrell at #4 by the IBF, and the last time I checked, #2 comes before #4, so that fight wouldn’t have a title on the line if Groves and DeGale were to face each other. If they want to fight then that’s good, but Dirrell would then move ahead and fight for the IBF title against someone like Gilberto Ramirez.
I expect Groves to fight Anthony Dirrell later this year or possibly next. I see Groves getting knocked out worse than he was against Froch, because Dirrell is a lot faster than Froch with better accuracy and almost equal power. Once Groves is knocked out again, he’ll be pretty much be stuck having to rebuild his career.
I can’t see the World Boxing Council coming along again like they did recently by letting Groves fight in another WBC eliminator bout with him coming off of yet another knockout loss. Surprisingly, the WBC let Groves fight in a WBC eliminator bout against little known Christopher Rebrasse despite the fact that Groves had been knocked out in his two previous fights by Froch.
What the WBC was thinking about when they decided that Groves would be a good option to fight in an eliminator bout is anyone’s guess. You’d like to think that the WBC would at least pick contenders that are winning their recent fights instead of someone who is coming off of consecutive knockout losses.
Hearn is really up against it with DeGale. Unless the IBF shove Dirrell to curb to let DeGale fight the lower ranked Groves, DeGale is going to be in a situation where he’s going to need to fight the talented Andre Dirrell, and I don’t see that going well for DeGale at all.
I believe Dirrell does everything that DeGale can do, but much, much better. Dirrell is like superior version of DeGale in my view. Dirrell is faster, stronger, more mobile and a heck of a lot better defensively than DeGale. It’s like night and day.
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