By Scott Gilfoid: #3 WBC George Groves (21-3, 16 KOs) could effectively be seeing his fading career pretty much finished off tonight when he gets inside the ring with the hard hitting Italian fighter Andrea Di Luisa (18-3, 14 KOs) in their fight at the Copper Box Arena in London, UK.
Things are at an all-time low for Groves, who has seen himself get beaten in 3 of the last 5 fights he’s been in. Groves is now seemingly only capable of beating the fringe level guys like Christopher Rebrasse and Denis Douglin, neither of which are ranked in the top 15 by any of the sanctioning bodies at 168.
That’s kind of how things are with Groves. He’s reduced to fighting 2nd tier fodder. Tonight’s fight for Groves is against another 2nd tier job in Di Luisa, who was recently knocked out in 4 round by the WAY past his best Lucian Bute last August.
Don’t ask me what Groves is doing fighting Di Luisa. It looks another confidence booster to try and raise Groves’ spirits after his latest loss last September to WBC champion Badou Jack. Groves ditched his last trainer Paddy Fitzpatrick after that defeat and is now trained by Shane McGuigan. I don’t see anything changing with McGuigan now training Groves.
It’s just a game musical chairs. McGuigan is there now, but my guess is he’ll be gone after Groves gets beaten once or twice. I think there will be someone else that will be seen as the magical fix to the struggling Groves’ problems inside the ring. The thing is I don’t know that Groves’ problems can be fixed with any trainer. How in the heck can a trainer help Groves’ chin and stamina problems? It’s not as if McGuigan is going to jump inside the ring and run interference for Groves to keep him from taking a shot on the chin squarely.
“I feel that after a few wins, I’ll be ready for challenger for another world title,” Groves said to skysports.com. “James DeGale is a fight out there for me. Arthur Abraham and I share the same promoter. At the WBC, Badou Jack is the champion. I lost a split decision to him. I kept my rankings [with the World Boxing Council]. I have a shot there too. I think the doors are open for me when I want to fight for a world title. We just want to go out there and win and see what opportunities present themselves,” Groves said.
There’s no question that Groves will be able to get another crack at a world title in the near future. The champions obviously saw Groves’ two fights against Carl Froch in the past, and they likely recognize how good Groves’ marketing skills are.
Having Groves talk up a fight against them would be a big deal because it would make their fights much bigger than normal. Unfortunately for Groves, he just doesn’t seem capable of backing up his bold talk inside the ring. He’s got Ricardo Mayorga type verbal skills with his ability to create interest in his fights, but like Mayorga, Groves fails to produce nowadays. It’s too bad that Groves can’t fight as good as he talks, because he would be one of the biggest stars in boxing.
I could see Groves being near tops in the UK if he could stop losing left and right, but how do you do that? Heck, the only thing I can think of to keep Groves from getting thrashed is to feed him guys like Douglin and Rebrasse 24/7. Groves will look like a world beater every time he fights, and the casual boxing fans will jump back on the Groves’ bandwagon. Of course, the hardcore fans that know something about the sport might be put off by Groves’ fight against weak fodder opponents and will see him as just a pretender rather than the real thing.
“It worries me that George might well have hit his peak so early after what he’s been through,” Froch said to skysports.com.
I don’t even know if you can say that Groves ever really hit his peak, because before he got knocked out by Froch the first time in 2013, Groves had been fighting largely weak opposition and not high quality guys. I mean, see for yourself the guys that Groves was fighting BEFORE he lost to Froch the first time and tell me if you can learn anything about how good or not so good Groves was up to that point in his career.
Noe Gonzalez Alcoba
Baker Barakat
Dario German Balmaceda
Glen Johnson
Francisco Sierra
Paul Smith
James DeGale
Daniel Adotey Allotey
Kenny Anderson
Alfredo Contreras
Those are not great fighters, none of them. Glen Johnson was definitely a good fighter during his career, but by the time that Groves fought him, he was 43-years-old and had lost 5 out of his last 7 fights including his last 3. That win for Groves told us NOTHING about him other than he can beat an old timer that was best his prime in his career.
Groves’ win over DeGale in 2011 was controversial with many boxing fans thinking that DeGale had done enough to win. Heck, the only reason DeGale lost the fight was because he fought a stupid fight by not putting pressure on Groves early in the first half. DeGale kept waiting for Groves to come to him to start slugging.
Looking forward to seeing @StGeorgeGroves tonight. The start of a journey with @McGuigans_Gym that'll lead to a world title for the Staint
— Carl Frampton (@RealCFrampton) January 30, 2016
Finally, DeGale started putting huge pressure on Groves in the 2nd half of the fight and was able to dominate him. However, it was too late by then because Groves had built up a big enough lead to win. But that was a fight that Groves would have lost if DeGale had been smarter early on.
The win proved nothing for Groves, because if he had fought a talented super middleweight with a good head on his shoulders, he would have lost because they would have immediately put pressure on him and won. As for the rest of the opposition Groves has faced during the early part of his career, they were gawd awful. As such, I think Froch is off base by saying that Groves peaked too soon. How can you peak when you’re fighting fodder?
“I don’t believe George is the same fighter as he was before those fights against Froch and Jack. I can only comment from my point of view. We will see how it goes, and I do have a good punch,” Di Luisa said to skysports.com.
Again, I don’t believe that Groves has changed as a fighter. I just think that boxing fans are seeing the real fighter that was there all this time. We probably would have seen all Groves’ flaws and limitations as a fighter early on in his career if he had faced good opposition, but he was fed weak guys in record-padding fights for easy wins. With that said, I do think Groves has aged physically. You can see it if you look at pictures and video of his fights from 2011 and 2012. Groves looks A LOT older and almost like a fighter that aged 10 years. Even when you look at the Groves that fought Froch in 2013, he looks much older now, and that was only three years ago. I don’t know what happened with Groves but he does not like the youthful fighter that he was at one time. It’s not just because he’s losing his hair. Groves just looks much older now than he was just a few years ago.
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