By William Mackay: Undefeated super middleweight prospect George Groves (6-0, 5 KO’s) extended his consecutive knockout string to five fights with a 4th round stoppage victory over Lithuanian Tadas Jonkus (4-5, 3 KO’s) on Friday night at the Seaburn Centre, Sunderland. The 21-year-old Groves cornered Jonkus a couple of times in the 4th round, battering him each time with unanswered punches.

Finally, referee Gary Williams had seen enough after watching Groves corner the badly over-matched Jonkus yet again and stopped the bout at 1:49 of the 4th round. The fight was one-sided from the start, with Groves throwing and landing almost all of the punches in the fight. Jonkus looked like junk for the most part, not letting his punches go and just taking punishment.

In each of the rounds, Jonkus, 24, would make the mistake of retreating to the corner where he would take some awful punishment each times from Groves. You would think that after the second time that Jonkus had let himself get trapped there, and take terrible punishment, he would have been wise enough not to go back on his own. However, he repeatedly went back as if he was a glutton for a punishment.

This is perhaps why Jonkus’ record is so poor, because wasn’t using his head when fighting. It wouldn’t have mattered if he had stood in the center of the ring, as Groves would have gotten to him sooner or later with his powerful hooks and right hands.

Groves looks really good for a 21-year-old, in particular when throwing hooks to the body and rights to the head. He’s got a lot of technical skills going for him. If he can grow another inch or two and end up 6’1″ or maybe 6’2″, he’ll be a threat to future world champions. But right now, he’d have major problems if they put him in with even a bottom 15 fighter.

In the 1st round, Jonkus was met with withering fire from Groves, who was instantly all over the Lithuanian fighter, tagging him with shots from every angle. In that round, Jonkus was willing to throw a rare shot back at Groves in the form of jabs. However, in the 2nd, 3rd and 4th rounds, Jonkus was on shut down offensively for the night and merely took shots like a punching bag.

The fight was no longer interesting because it was clear what Groves had in front of him – a stiff – and there wasn’t going to be any real fighting going on. Groves spent rounds two through four, hammering Jonkus with one shot after another without anything coming back at him.

It was surprising that the referee allowed the fight to go into the 4th round because it was no longer a fight and was just a case of Groves working on a heavy bag. Finally, in the 4th round the referee mercifully stepped in and stopped the bout after seeing Groves work Jonkus over in the corner one time too many.

Hopefully for Groves’s sake, his management match him a little tougher than this. He’s been put in really soft since turning pro last year and he’s knocking everyone out in one-sided fights. He needs an opponent that at least can throw some punches back at Groves and give him the appearance of an actual fight instead of a ritual sacrifice.