Hearn probably isn’t confident of DeGale beating Andre Dirrell, says Groves

By Boxing News - 02/10/2015 - Comments

dirrell443By Scott Gilfoid: #1 WBC, #4 IBF, #4 WBA George Groves thinks that Eddie Hearn, the promoter for #1 IBF James DeGale (20-1, 14 KOs), isn’t feeling too confident about matching him against #2 IBF Andre Dirrell in their proposed fight on April 25th.

This is why Groves thinks that Hearn is so interested in making a fight between him and DeGale, because it’s a fight that will make more money. Groves figures Hearn sees it as a situation where that if DeGale is going to lose both guys, he should get as much money as he can for his next fight.

The problem with that is the only way that Hearn is going to be able to lure Groves into taking the DeGale fight is by giving him the bigger slice of the pie in terms of the purse split, and I’m not so certain that DeGale is going to feel too good about that.

“Eddie needs a star attraction to fill dates. James DeGale needs a dance partner. If he does fight Andre Dirrell he probably isn’t very confident of winning that fight because he could lose and not make any money out it. But if he boxes me he can lose and make a few quid. I understand his logic,” Groves said via Skysports.com.

Groves went on to say that he’s been sparring southpaws just in case. Obviously, if Hearn makes Groves a huge offer to take the DeGale fight, he might be persuaded in taking the fight next.

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Unfortunately for Groves, he’s pretty much in the same situation as DeGale as far as him looking at an opponent that he’ll likely be easily beaten by in his next fight. If Groves doesn’t take the fight with DeGale, then he’ll be facing WBC super middleweight champion Anthony Dirrell next, and that’s not a fight that you can realistically say that Groves will win.

Indeed, I’d say the chances of Groves winning that fight are extremely low to the point where if he takes the fight, you can pretty much count it as another knockout loss for Groves.

That’s why it’s so interesting that Groves is taking a shot at Hearn for wanting to get the most cash he can for DeGale in his next fight by steering him into safer waters away from Andre Dirrell – and a likely one-sided loss – to a fight against Groves.

It’s actually a smart move by Hearn, because if you know that your fighter is going to lose their next fight if they face a talented guy like Dirrell, then obviously you’re going to try and avoid that fight by looking at other options.

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The downside of DeGale and Groves facing each other is that they wouldn’t be fighting for a world title. The only way they can fight for a world title in their next fight is to face one of the Dirrell brothers, and it’s starting to look like Hearn is leaning in the direction of safety by wanting to match DeGale with Groves rather than Andre Dirrell.

“I’ve taken a lot of time getting into this position so why should I give up to take small change and take the short hand fighting DeGale now,” Groves said to Skysports.com. This fight is always on the table and if they make an offer I couldn’t refuse, then I’d be much more interested.”

I don’t get the part where Groves says he’s taken a long time to get in the position where he is right now. I mean, Groves was knocked out twice in a row by Carl Froch, and then given a gift by the World Boxing Council to fight in a WBC title eliminator immediately after those two knockout losses by facing little known Christopher Rebrasse, a fighter without much punching power.

I don’t see where Groves really did anything to get in the position where he is now other than beat a light-hitting obscure fighter named Rebrasse, who the WBC gave a high ranking to despite him not having faced many top fighters during his career.

Groves beat the Rebrasse guy and then another obscure fighter named Denis Douglin. I don’t see that as Groves having to do much at all to get into the position he is today.

You can make an argument that if the WBC lobbed the same softball pitch to lower ranked contenders like Dereck Edwards, Badou Jack, Julius Jackson and Vincent Feigenbutz, they would have all hit it out of the park by easily beating Rebrasse in the WBC 168 pound eliminator in order to get a shot at Anthony Dirrell’s WBC title.

Why the WBC chose Groves, who’d been knocked out in consecutive fights by Froch, is unclear. Unless the WBC has lowered the bar in terms of qualifications for picking contenders for their WBC eliminator bouts, it makes absolutely no sense.

Why if they’re going to find someone with consecutive knockout losses to place in their eliminator bouts did they choose Groves rather than some other guy that was recently knocked out twice too? It’s very bizarre to me and it seems upside to the way thing are supposed to be.



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