Groves vs. Johnson: If Glen is at 80% capacity he could win

By Boxing News - 11/20/2012 - Comments

Image: Groves vs. Johnson: If Glen is at 80% capacity he could winBy Scott Gilfoid: Unbeaten Commonwealth super middleweight champion George Groves (15-0, 12 KO’s) will be fighting 43-year-old Glen Johnson (51-17-2, 35 KO’s) next month on December 15th at the ExCel Arena in London, England. Johnson hasn’t been winning very much lately as he’s been beaten in five out of his last seven fights dating back to 2009. Johnson was recently retired following his loss to Andrzej Fonfara last July.

I don’t know about you but I don’t see it as a very sporting thing for Groves to be fighting Johnson at this point in his career. To me that seems like a cherry picking move to fight a faded guy like Johnson. I wouldn’t have been bothered if the fight were made back in 2010 before Johnson’s string of losses had built up, but now it just looks really bad because he’s even losing to guys like Fonfara, who I don’t see as a future world champion.

Why couldn’t Groves be matched up with a young talented super middleweight contender like Andre Dirrell or Anthony Dirrell? Matching Groves up with one of those guys would be a lot more interesting because it would at least show where Groves is at as a fighter. I think Groves would lose BADLY to either of them, but at least it would give him some valuable experience so that he could improve. But matching him against an old fighter that 43 and losing often isn’t my idea of a sporting fight.

So I have a have a feeling that Groves is going to spend the fight running around the ring trying to avoid getting hit by Johnson instead of mixing it up with him. In other words, I see Groves fighting much in the same way he did when he won a controversial 12 round decision over James DeGale last year. That was an ugly fight with Groves playing hit and run for 12 rounds, and winning a fight that I had him losing.

I really don’t think Groves can beat Johnson by trading with him in a toe-to-toe fight. Groves doesn’t have the power to fight like that and he seems really weak when he stops and trades with his opponents. Even a 43-year-old Johnson will likely prove much too powerful for Groves.



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