By Scott Gilfoid: If EBU super middleweight champion James DeGale (11-1, 8 KO’s) can get by the short 5’7 1/2″ challenger Cristian Sanavia (45-5-1, 13 KO’s) on April 21, and George Groves (14-0, 11 KO’s) beat WBO super middleweight champion Robert Stieglitz (41-2, 23 KO’s) next month on May 5th in Germany, we could see a possible grudge match between DeGale and Groves.

Promoter Frank Warren said to thesun.co.uk “The feuding pair [Groves and DeGale] don’t like each other. But this time they could be willing each other to win – to set up the grudge rematch all boxing fans want to see.”

I don’t know about “All boxing fans” wanting to see this fight. I’m sure UK fans want to see it, but that’s about it. Groves and DeGale are virtual unknowns once you get them outside of the UK and put them in the U.S. Only hardcore boxing fans would recognize them, but Casual fans wouldn’t have a clue who these guys are. I personally wouldn’t mind seeing them fight again, because I thought poor DeGale was royally screwed over with those judges’ scores when they fought last May. It was a bad situation all around for DeGale, because the crowd was firmly on Groves’ side the entire fight, and booing DeGale. It was pretty bad. DeGale took too long to adjust to Groves’ hit and run style of fighting and by the time he finally did in the 5th, he was well behind in the fight. Although I have DeGale winning every round from the 5th on, the judges saw it differently and gave Groves the win.

None of this really matters, though, because I can’t see the Groves-DeGale fight being made for a couple of reasons. First of all, Groves is going to lose to Stieglitz on May 5th. That’s just the way it is. Stieglitz throws too many punches, Groves is too much of a runner, and the fight is in Germany. Groves probably doesn’t realize it yet, but he’s pretty much in a non-win situation unless he can score a stoppage over Stieglitz, and that’s not going to happen, not with Groves’ 24/7 running. He’s just not a good offensive fighter and spends too much time using the David Haye style of circling the ring endlessly looking fake his opponent out of position to land a pot shot. This will fail miserably against Stieglitz.

I think DeGale no problems beating the little Sanavia. This is one of those mismatches that I often see with Nathan Cleverly against the fodder that’s dug up for him. Not sure what Sanavia has done to get a title shot against DeGale. Looks like he beat a handful of third tier opposition to get this shot. It’s pretty safe bet that DeGale will win this fight, but still not get the Groves revenge bout.