By Scott Gilfoid: Commonwealth super middleweight champion George Groves (15-0, 12 KO’s) will be defending his title against a still unknown opponent on December 15th at the ExCel Arena, Dockland, London, UK. Also on the card will be WBO lightweight champion Ricky Burns (35-2, 10 KO’s), who could be facing one of the following fighters: John Murray, Liam Walsh or Ji-Hoon Kim.
Groves, 24, has fought only once since last year, defeating Francisco Sierra by a 6th round TKO last July in San Jose, California. Groves easily beat an overmatched opponent, although Groves got his face badly marked up and suffered a bad cut. That paper skin of Groves is likely going to be a problem for him throughout his career. However, I don’t expect it to get in the way of winning whoever gets dragged into the ring to face him on December 15th. Since it’s the Commonwealth strap Groves is defending here, it’ll probably be a nice domestic level opponent that gets put in with him for this fight. That shouldn’t be a problem for Groves. He’s cut above the average domestic level fighter.
Groves could have had a title shot this year against the former WBO super middleweight champion Robert Stieglitz. However, Groves suffered a nose injury and couldn’t take the fight. Instead of fighting for a world title, Groves had to settle for a fight against 2nd tier guy Sierra last July. That must have hurt big time for Groves, but what can you do if you’re body is breaking down on you for one or another. I hope the nose injuries aren’t a chronic problem for Groves as well, because he won’t get far if his nose is getting busted up, as well as his skin tearing to pieces.
I’d like to see Groves step it up and face the talented Andre and Anthony Dirrell. I think a fight either of them would be a nice fight for the ExCel Arena on December 15th. I would like to see how Groves would do against those two talents.
As for Burns, well he’s probably going to take another softy for the December 15th. He just finished taking an easy one against fellow Brit Kevin Mitchell, who couldn’t even make it past the 4th round. I still can’t understand for the life of me why in the heck did the World Boxing Organization have a limited fighter like Mitchell at #2 in their rankings. All that did was give Burns an easy title defense. That’s like the WBA ranking Hasim Rahman #1 so he could fight WBA World heavyweight champion Alexander Povetkin. What a mismatch that turned out to be.
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