By Scott Gilfoid: Commonwealth super middleweight champion George Groves (15-0, 12 KO’s) will be facing 43-year-old former IBF light heavyweight champion Glen Johnson (51-17-2, 35 KO’s) in a scheduled 12 round bout on December 15th at the ExCel Arena, Dockland, in London, United Kingdom. This is the same card as WBO lightweight champion Ricky Burns, who still doesn’t have an opponent for this card.

Johnson was supposedly in the process of retiring after losing three out of his last four fights, including his last one against light heavyweight fringe contender Andrzej Fonfara last July. It looks like Groves’ promoter Frank Warren is looking to get a well known scalp for Groves to add to his collection by choosing the 43-year-old Johnson.

Goodness knows a prime Glen Johnson would give the likes of Groves a terrible beating without question. However, this faded version of Johnson may be shot enough for Groves to win the fight, but only if he fights in the same painful to watch hit and run style he used against James DeGale last year. If Groves tries to fight Johnson the way he did his last opponent Francisco Sierra last July, Johnson will knock Groves out.

Groves can’t fight that way against Johnson because he won’t be able to dent his chin and he’ll take a ton of punishment in getting broken down and chopped up by Johnson’s hard shots. I don’t know what it is but it seems like every time I see Groves fight, he’s bleeding like a stuck pig and his face looks like it was stomped on. Maybe his skin is too tender for the sport.

Whatever the case, Johnson will rip Groves to shreds if Groves tries to slug with him the way he did with Sierra and Paul Smith. I’d like to see if Groves can fight Johnson that way, because he’d win my respect if he did. But I don’t think Groves will even consider fighting that way because of how dangerous Johnson is. I see Groves playing the old hit, run and hold, and really stinking up the joint on December 15th. He’ll have a lot of company with Ricky Burns fighting in the main event, and he’s pretty good at holding as well.

Well, I Warren is paying Johnson good money to take this fight with Groves, because it would be off putting if Johnson is getting chickenfeed to be Groves’ name fighter. I’d much rather see Groves fight someone a tad younger than Johnson, someone like Andre or Anthony Dirrell. We could then see where Groves stacks up in the super middleweight division in a sink or swim bout. It would be a good fight because we could get rid of some excess baggage in the division and let the cream – Dirrell – float to the top to where he can fight for one of the titles.

Also on this card will be the following fights:

Billy Joe Saunders vs. Nick Blackwell
Tony Conquest vs. TBA

As you can see this card is hurting bad for talent. They need to add some names because this pretty poor.