Froch says he didn’t knock Groves out, he just knocked him down

By Boxing News - 04/12/2011 - Comments

By Sean McDaniel: WBC super middleweight champion Carl Froch came to George Groves’ rescue the other day, confessing that, contrary to reports about him having knocked out Groves in sparring, he had actually only dropped him. Groves technically wasn’t knocked out because he was able to get back up after hitting the canvas. It’s kind of meaningless really because boxing fans probably see it as about the same. In other words, Groves got handled by Froch and there’s no shame in that.

Froch is on a higher level and Groves is just starting his career out. He’s got a big fight ahead of him against British super middleweight champion James DeGale (10-0, 8 KO’s) next month on May 21st, and has been sparring with southpaw Andre Dirrell to trry and get accustomed to DeGale’s southpaw style. It’s a tough match-up for Groves at this point in his career because DeGale is a little older and seems to be more advanced.

Perhaps if Groves can have more training with Dirrell or other slick American fighters, he can learn enough to advance to the level where DeGale is at right now. Apart from that, it’s not looking good for Groves in his fight next month. The best I can see happening for Groves is that he loses but makes it kind of close similar to the way that Erik Morales made it close in losing to Marcos Maidana last weekend. If Groves can avoiding getting knocked out or totally dominated, he can perhaps claim victory and convince some fans that he should have won the fight. He can then take this as a partial victory and start making a case that he deserves a rematch or use it to get equally big fights in the future.



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