Stieglitz will wear Groves down with pressure

By Boxing News - 04/10/2012 - Comments

Image: Stieglitz will wear Groves down with pressureBy Scott Gilfoid: George Groves (14-0, 11 KO’s) has really stepped in it by agreeing to step up from the domestic level to fight WBO super middleweight champion Robert Stieglitz (41-2, 23 KO’s) on May 5th at the Messehalle, Erfurt, Thüringen, Germany. The 30-year-old Stieglitz is the most experienced fighter that Groves has ever been put in with, and he’s going to be in trouble from Stieglitz’s pressure.

Groves needs to fight guys that throw very few punches for him to do well. Groves seems to be especially good against guys that load up, because he can dance around the ring, trying to make his opponents miss and use those boring feints over and over again. It works against 2nd tier domestic level fighters, but we’re going to see why it’ll miserably fail when he steps it up against a world class athlete. Groves’ age has nothing to do with him what will happen to him on May 5th, because Groves will very likely be the same fighter in five years as he is now. He loves to fly around the ring making like he’s going to throw but then doesn’t to try and fake his opponent out of position. It’s all so much work just to land one or two pity-pat punches. I guess the movement from Groves is to protect his chin or something because it’s a waste of energy otherwise.

Stieglitz is going to really put it on Groves in this fight, and make him wish that he was fighting one of his good ole domestic level fodder opponents that he’s build his record on. Groves will do okay with the pressure initially while he’s still got some energy, but after five or six rounds, Groves’ legs will start getting heavy, his feet will hurt, possibly from blisters from his constant running, and he’ll be gasping for breath.

Groves will literally have to stop running at that point or else he’ll be in danger of keeling over and collapsing from exhaustion. Things will get really bad at that point. Groves will be cornered and forced to fight in a one on one battle that he’s not physically or mentally prepared to fight. Stieglitz will be laying into Groves, hitting him with everything but the kitchen sink while averaging close to 100 punches thrown per round.

Groves won’t be able to handle that because at best, he’ll be lucky to throw 30 punches per round. But it’ll be much less than that due to Stieglitz unloading on him with an avalanche of punches every round. I suspect Groves will use the old clinch to try and slow Stieglitz down. I’m pretty sure this is what Groves will do. He’ll take a page out of Bernard Hopkins’ playbook and attach himself to Stieglitz all night long to try and smother his offense completely.

The referee will literally have to peel Groves off of Stieglitz over and over again in each round so that there can actually be some fighting. Eventually, the referee will tire of Groves’ clinching and will taking points off for the excessive holding. I just hope the message sinks in with Groves that he can’t be fighting like a big sucker fish attaching himself to Stieglitz like barnacle.

If Groves doesn’t get the message or is incapable of stopping with the clinching, then I can see Groves getting disqualified. I’m really hoping he doesn’t hold but I remember seeing Groves holding for all he was worth in some of his fights and I was shocked that the referee just stood there and let him get away with it. I’m hoping we have a strict referee like Jay Nady working the fight.



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