Groves signs with Matchroom, fights this Saturday against Balmaceda

By Boxing News - 03/04/2013 - Comments

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By Scott Gilfoid: Unbeaten Commonwealth super middleweight champion George Groves (16-0, 12 KO’s) signed a contract to fight for Eddie Hearn’s Matchroom Sport. Groves doesn’t say why specifically he decided to leave his former promoter Frank Warren, but one could guess that it might have to do with Hearn’s contract with Sky that will give Groves potentially a lot of visibility for his fights.

Groves will be making his first fight with Matchroom this Saturday night against Argentinian Dario German Balmaceda (11-6-2, 7 kO’s) in a scheduled 10 round bout on the Darren Barker vs. Simone Rotolo card at the Wembley Arena in London, UK. I’ve never heard of Balmaceda, but his resume is unimpressive to say the least. God, I hope this isn’t the type of fighters that Groves will be fighting with his new promoter Hearn. If so, then he might as well be back with his old promoter.

Also on the card will be Lee Purdy facing Carson Jones, which end up being the best fight on the card by far.

Groves is also scheduled to fight on the May 25th card in London headlined by IBF super middleweight champion Carl Froch vs. Mikkel Kessler at the O2 Arena. Believe it or not, Groves will be the co-main event on the card. Hopefully, Hearn finds a halfway decent opponent for Groves to fight for that card because it won’t look good with Groves fighting another little known fighter like the one he’s facing this Saturday.

There’s only two months to go before the May 25th fight, and I’d be really surprised if Hearn can find anyone halfway decent that will be willing to travel all the way to London to take that fight unless Hearn opens up his pocketbook and throws some cash at somebody good. Will that happen? I’d say that’s probably a big no. Look for Groves to face another obscure guy, and it end up being a terrible mismatch.

Groves was supposed to be fighting on March 16th against Mouhamed Ali Ndiaye for the vacant EBU super middleweight title on the Nathan Cleverly vs. Robin Krasniqi fight card at the Wembley Arena, but that fight was cancelled after Groves chose to sign with Matchroom Sport.

Groves is still interested in going after the EBU strap, saying to Sky Sports News “I’ve had to give up my spot as the mandatory for the European title, but hopefully that door isn’t shut and it’s still a possible route, but I’m well ranked in the governing bodies and I want to fight for a world title.”

Why Groves would want to waste time fighting for the vacant EBU 168 lb. strap is beyond me because the opposition that he would likely have to face would be fringe level talent at best. At worst, we’re talking middle of the pack 2nd tier quality fighters, so I honestly don’t see the gain in Groves going after a strap that will keep him fighting the same kinds of opposition he’s been fighting for much of his career.

Groves is ranked #1 by the World Boxing Organization, and is in line to get a shot against the Arthur Abraham vs. Robert Stieglitz winner. It seems to me that the logical choice would be for Groves to look to fight the winner of that fight, but that’s me. If Groves wants to fight at the European level, then I guess he knows himself better than I do, and that’s a smart for him.



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