By Scott Gilfoid: In a battle of decent but badly flawed domestic level fighters Paul Smith (31-2, 17 KO’s) and British and Commonwealth super middleweight champion George Groves (13-0, 10 KO’s) on November 5th, the 29-year-old Smith is single-mindedly determined to beat Groves and revive his sagging career while at the same time capturing a couple of domestic trinkets in their fight at the Wembley Arena, Wembley, London, England.
Smith said to dailystar.co.uk “He [Groves is made for me. I know I can get him out of there.”
I agree, but only if Smith fights smart. If he fights passively, he’ll lose. He’s got to be all over this guy early and often to win.
Smith can’t afford to get beaten again at this stage. He already got spanked by James DeGale last year by 9th round TKO last December and the last thing he needs is to get whipped again, especially by a younger whippersnapper like the 23-year-old Groves. Smith needs this win to stay relevant on the domestic scene and it will look really bad if a fighter like Groves is the one that brings him down.
Groves arguably should have lost his last fight against James DeGale last May. While Groves did a great job with the wily game plan that his mastermind trainer Adam Booth put together for him to outsmart DeGale, the element of surprise was over by the 5th round when DeGale figured out Groves’ style and began to get the better of him in majority of the exchanges in the last seven rounds.
I saw DeGale winning the fight behind a strong second half showing, which is why I thought it odd that Groves was strutting like a peacock afterwards as if he had one by a landslide. It was sad, as Groves, with his badly beaten face, seemed out of touch with the reality of what had just transpired in the ring.
All Smith has to do is follow DeGale’s beautiful blueprint how to beat Groves by pressuring him from the very start and not giving him an inch of space or a second to breath. You can’t let Groves run around or he’ll peck away and steal rounds. Heck, he’ll probably already come in as the fan favorite and that means that Smith is going to have to be on him like white on rich and never let up for a second.
You’ve got to hit Groves as hard as you can with every punch to make him fold up shop. We were seeing that in the DeGale fight in the second half, but the judges seemed to follow the crowd cheering for Groves and gave him a decision that likely wouldn’t have occurred had the fight taken place in a different venue.
Smith has got the power but the only question is does he have the smarts and determination to stay on Groves and not let up for a second. You can’t this guy run on you because he’ll use feints all night long and win a fight with a low punch output.
Comments are closed.