By Scott Gilfoid: British promoter Frank Warren says he’s interested in putting his fighter Commonwealth super middleweight champion George Groves (16-0, 12 KO’s) back in with WBC Silver super middleweight champion James DeGale (14-1, 9 KO’s) in a rematch next year at some point, Warren said in an interview with I Film London. Warren also sees Groves fighting for a title in 2013 as well.
I would be interested in seeing DeGale and Groves fight again because I’ve always felt that DeGale got a raw deal in losing to Groves last year in May, and I think he’d beat him in a rematch. However, I doubt DeGale will take the fight with Groves next year because DeGale wants to fight for a world title and the only way he’s going to fight Groves again is if either of them have a title.
Aside from that, I don’t see DeGale choosing to fight Groves a second time. I wouldn’t advise DeGale to fight Groves again inside the UK because the fans were booing DeGale from the 1st round on in the Groves-DeGale fight, and I think the fans would end up causing the judges to score rounds in favor of Groves that really should have gone to DeGale.
I think it’s an unconscious thing with judges. When they hear one guy getting all the applause even for missed punches, they often give the nod for that fighter. That’s why I think DeGale should only fight Groves outside of the UK in American are someplace neutral where the crowd won’t be heavily in Groves’ favor like they were last year when they fought.
If I was DeGale’s promoter, I’d recommend that he not fight Groves unless he can have the fight in another location. Short of that I wouldn’t do the fight because I see the judges scoring it for Groves every time if the crowd is going to be in his favor.
I think it’s possible that Groves will get a tile shot against the weakest of the super middleweight champions Arthur Abraham in 2013. I don’t see Groves eager to take on champions Mikkel Kessler, Carl Froch or Andre Ward, because those guys would all beat him. I’m pretty sure that Abraham would do a job on Groves as well. If 43-year-old Glen Johnson was able to hurt Groves then I definitely see Abraham doing it as well.
Groves is a decent fighter. I rate him just outside of the top 10, behind the Dirrell brothers, Thomas Oosthuizen, Edwin Rodriguez, and Sakio Bika. He’s good but he’s got some limitations there.
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