By Scott Gilfoid: In less than three weeks, WBC super middleweight Badou Jack (19-1-1, 12 KOs) will be putting his WBC title on the line against his No.1 WBC 168lb mandatory challenger George Groves (21-2, 16 KOs) in a 12 round bout on the undercard of the Floyd Mayweather Jr. vs. Andre Berto fight card on Showtime PPV from the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, Nevada.
Jack, 31, originally thought the fight with the 27-year-old Groves would be a tough affair, but he’s now thinking that it could wind up as being an easy one for him. Either way, Jack says he’ll ready for a war on September 12th when he gets inside the ring with Groves.
So why is jack now seeing Groves as potentially an easy fight for him? Well, it could be that he sat down and watched Groves only two tough fights of his career against Carl Froch, and saw how Groves fell apart after he was hit with some solid head shots in that fight. Jack likely sat down and watched how poor Groves looked in his last two fights against Denis Douglin and Christopher Rebrasse, and came to the conclusion that Groves has problems taking head shots.
“I’m ready for war. It is going to be one hell of a fight, a real tough fight,” Badou Jack said via skysports.com. “That’s what I am expecting but it might not be like that; it might be easier than I thought it would be or it might be harder, who knows?”
I have to agree with Jack. I think this fight could very well turn out to be a very, very easy fight for him once he lands something significant to the head of Groves. I mean, Groves had never fought anyone good in his career before his two fights with Froch, and he was blasted out in both of their fights.
Groves was knocked clean out in their last fight in May of 2014. The thing of it is Groves has looked terrible since that last fight with Froch. Groves had to battle hard to defeat the light hitting Rebrasse in their WBC 168lb eliminator fight, and Groves looked equally poor against little known Denis Douglin. I didn’t like the way Groves reacted whenever he was hit with head shots in those two fights.
Groves wasn’t facing anyone with power against those guys, yet he looked uncomfortable when he was nailed cleanly by them. Badou Jack is a much better puncher than Rebrasse and Douglin, and it’s going to be very hard for Groves to be able to take head shots from him without him reverting to form and dropping for the 10 count in the fight.
I expect that to happen. Groves will look good for a couple of rounds until he starts getting nailed, and then I can see him dropping to the canvas with perhaps one leg bent underneath him in a painful looking position while the referee waives the fight off frantically and looks to revive Groves.
“I’ve seen him fight and he’s a good fighter and that’s what I want, to fight good fighters,” Jack said. “He’s not a great fighter but he’s a very tough fighter and I expect the toughest George Groves on fight night.”
I don’t even know if you can call Groves a good fighter. I mean, for Groves to be considered a good fighter, he would have to show that he can beat the top contenders in the 168lb division, and I haven’t seen him beat anyone that I consider a top contender. I don’t rate Rebrasse as a top 15 contender. I see him as top 30 or 40 at best. That’s why I thought it was so hilarious that the World Boxing Council threw Groves a bone by ordering him to fight Rebrasse in the WBC super middleweight title eliminator last year.
The WBC not only ordered Groves to fight what I see as a soft opponent in Rebrasse rather than a talent like Andre Dirrell, but they also ordered the fight with Groves coming off of two knockout losses to Froch. What sanctioning body orders an eliminator with a guy that has been knocked out in his last two fights? To me, that’s like some kind of a backwards move and I don’t understand it. You lose two times and then the WBC lets you fight in an eliminator for a world title. I’ve never seen anything like that done in other sports. When you lose in other sports, you don’t get put in the Super Bowl or the World Series to battle for all the marbles. For that reason, I don’t see Groves as someone who actually rates a world title fight against Badou Jack. Groves didn’t have to beat anyone good for him to get the shot at a title, and he lost the last time he fought a good opponent in Froch.
All the rest of Groves’ wins have come against weak opposition. I thought Groves lost his fight against James DeGale in the past, so I don’t consider that as one of Groves’ victories. I saw that fight as a gift decision.
I see the Jack-Groves fight going really badly for Groves unless he shows some considerable improvement in the chin and stamina department by 9/12 when he meets Jack in Las Vegas, Nevada. Unfortunately, fighters that have chin problems don’t usually get better in that department as they age. Further, if a fighter is having stamina issues like Groves has been having his entire career; it’s not an area that gets better as you age.
Like I said, I think Groves will do marginally well in the first three to four rounds against Jack, and then run out of gas and get knocked out. The pressure that Jack puts on him will be immense, and it’ll cause Groves to run out of gas quickly in this fight. We saw what Froch’s pressure did to Groves in their first fight, and Froch really wasn’t putting a lot of pressure on him. Badou Jack is a much better pressure fighter than Froch.
If you watch Jack’s fights, he never lets up on his opponents in stalking them around the ring, forcing them to fight harder than they’re accustomed to. I thought Jack looked very impressive against Anthony Dirrell, Francisco Sierra, Rogelio Medina and Marco Antonio Periban.
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