Groves’ promoter wants purse bids for Badou Jack fight

By Boxing News - 07/25/2015 - Comments

groves5By Scott Gilfoid: Kalle Sauerland, the promoter for #1 WBC 168lb contender George Groves (21-2, 16 KOs), is saying that WBC super middleweight champion Badou Jack’s promoters at Mayweather promotions failed to meet the terms for the original deal for the Jack-Groves fight. As such, Sauerland has contacted the World Boxing Council to have them order purse bids for the Jack vs. Groves fight.

Now it’ll be up to the WBC to decide whether or not to let this go to purse bids. Sauerland and Mayweather Promotions previously averted a purse bid recently after they were able to reach a deal for the fight. However, it’s unclear what happened to change the terms of the deal.

The fight was supposed to take place on August 22nd, but apparently Showtime couldn’t use that date for the Jack vs. Groves fight. There were rumors that the fight would then take place on the undercard of the Floyd Mayweather Jr. vs. Andre Berto fight on September 12th at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, Nevada. That would be a good date for the fight, so it’s unknown why Sauerland is now calling for a purse bid.

Sauerland likely wants to have the Jack-Groves fight staged in the UK, where Groves lives. By having the fight staged there, it will probably make more money from the gate, and it’ll enable Groves to have a better chance of winning due to the crowd being pro-Groves. You certainly would have to assume that if the fight goes to the scorecards, Groves would have a good chance of winning the fight if it’s close.

Of course, Groves is one of those fighters who fights off of adrenalin rather than reason sometimes, and I could see him charging out in the opening rounds trying to get a knockout and then getting smashed by one of Jack’s big shots. It might work out in Jack’s favor if the fight is staged in the UK, because Groves will likely take more chances if he’s got the fans supporting him. If the fight takes place in America, I can see Groves being cautious without all the cheering egging him on to fight courageously, and causing him to take chances that he normally wouldn’t take.

I think Mayweather Promotions, or another promoters like Warriors Promotions, would have a good chance of winning the purse bid for the Jack-Groves fight to stage it in the United States. Unless Sauerland is willing to dig deep to come up with some good money to win the purse bid, I think it’ll be won by Mayweather promotions.

This will be Groves’ third shot at a world title in the last two years. Try to sink your teeth around that. Groves was twice beaten by former IBF/WBA/WBC super middleweight champion Carl Froch. But instead of Groves having to go to the end of the line like you normally see with challengers who get whipped while fighting for a title, then WBC ordered Groves and Christopher Rebrasse to fight in their WBC super middleweight title eliminating.

It was too easy for Groves. Of course, he beat the weak-punching Rebrasse to get the world title shot against Badou Jack, but why in the heck did the WBC select Groves to fight in a title eliminator after losing twice? I don’t understand that at all. Groves’ record in his last 4 fights is 2-2. That’s two wins and two losses, and here is on the verge of fighting for a world title. If Groves loses this fight too, will the WBC order Groves to fight in another 168lb eliminator bout to put him in position to fight for a 4th world title in two years? It’s senseless and very, very bizarre. You don’t see that kind of thing in other sports, do you? How do you rewarded for failure? I know if was one of the top 15 contenders the WBC has ranked right now, I’d be unhappy as heck to see Groves getting another world title shot after being knocked out twice by Froch.

Getting passed over by a guy that has been knocked out twice just seems so wrong. Where are the WBC’s standards? If they’re letting guys get world titles under those kinds of conditions, then it just makes the organization look odd. Everything is turned upside down where guys that are losing get rewarded by being put in world title eliminators, while the guys that are winning get passed over by the losing fighter.



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