Groves-Johnson: Glen ready to hand Groves his first loss

By Boxing News - 12/03/2012 - Comments

Image: Groves-Johnson: Glen ready to hand Groves his first lossBy Scott Gilfoid: 43-year-old Glen Johnson (51-17-2, 35 KO’s) has been picked out for the next opponent for Commonwealth super middleweight champion George Groves (15-0, 12 KO’s) to fight on December 15th at the ExCel Arena, Dockland, in London, United Kingdom.

Johnson has obviously been selected because he’s got a name and Groves by extension will get some attention by casual and hardcore boxing fans if he can beat him. Let’s be clear on this: Johnson isn’t in the prime of his career, because if he was I think he wouldn’t have been considered a possible opponent for Groves.

Johnson has had some tough luck lately with losses in five out of his last seven fights. However, most of those losses by Johnson come against top quality fighters. I don’t count Johnson’s last fight against Andrzej Fonfara as a loss, because I had Johnson winning that fight by a 10 round unanimous decision. But the rest of the losses have come against good opponents and he’s definitely lost those fights. But with that said, the guys that Johnson was beaten by – Chad Dawson, Andre Ward, Carl Froch and Tavoris Cloud – are clearly a level above Groves in talent.

There’s no shame in admitting that. After all, Groves is pretty much been matched up with domestic level opposition in his four year pro career and he’s only 24. You can’t expect Groves to be as good as guys with more experience than him, can you? Okay, so we’ve established that the guys that Johnson was beaten by were all better than Groves.

I think Johnson is still a couple of rungs better than Groves, and I see this fight going really badly for the Brit on December 15th. Groves doesn’t have the power or the strength to stand up to Johnson and beat him in a head to head fight.

If Groves tries to do that I see him getting bloodied and battered. No, I think it’s going to be a case where Groves is going to taste Johnson’s power and then use the hit and run style that Groves used to win a questionable decision over James DeGale last year. However, in this case I don’t see it working out well for Groves because I don’t think the judges will give him another questionable decision, especially if he’s bleeding all over creation from a cut or two.

I expect Groves to get cut up, because he’s probably going to try to stand and trade with Johnson early, and it won’t be until he’s hurt and licking his wounds that Groves will fall back into the running mode that he used to beat DeGale. I had DeGale winning that fight.



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