By Scott Gilfoid: Commonwealth super middleweight champion George Groves (15-0, 12 KO’s) will be facing his biggest test of his short four year pro career against 43-year-old former IBF light heavyweight champion Glen Johnson (51-17-2, 35 KO’s) on December 15th at the ExCel Arena in London, England.

I guess you can look at this fight as being all about timing for the 24-year-old Groves. He’s facing Johnson at the end of his career with him having lost four out of his last five fights. This isn’t the prime Johnson or anything close to that. Just flip scrip for a second and imagine how a 43-year-old Groves would do against a 24-year-old Johnson. Not good. However, Johnson is a special type of fighter and he’s going to really put Groves in a position where he’ll have to stand and fight or run and look bad.

If Groves stands and fights Johnson then the chances are high that Groves’ face will be cut to ribbons and possibly his nose injured from Johnson’s hard shots. I don’t know what it is but it seems like every time I see Groves fight, his skin is either cutting or turning red as a red-hot electric oven. The redness isn’t a big deal but the cuts could cause the fight to be halted if Johnson rips Groves up bad enough.

Also there’s the question of how much punishment that Groves can take without getting knocked out. In Groves’ questionable decision win over James DeGale last year, Groves looked really weak when he was forced to fight it out toe-to-toe. DeGale got the better off virtually every exchange when the two fighters went one on one. Groves was pretty much forced to use an ugly hit and run style that just horrible to watch.

I expect Groves to do the same against Johnson because he hits harder than DeGale and is a lot stronger than him. I just can’t wait to see how funny it looks with a young guy like Groves running from a 43-year-old Johnson. It’s going to be amusing and I wonder how much cache Groves will lose when and if he fights like this.

We could see Groves winning the fight but Johnson winning the event by showing more heart and a more willingness to make the fight. It doesn’t look good when a younger fighter runs from a 43-year-old. God, I hope Groves doesn’t run and stink up the joint on December 15th because this card is bad enough as it is without Groves making it worse.