By Scott Gilfoid: Unbeaten #1 WBO, #2 WBO, George Groves (19-0, 15 KO’s) says he’s in a situation where he can’t afford to lose in his title challenge against IBF/WBA super middleweight champion Carl Froch (31-2, 22 KO’s) on November 23rd at the Phones 4u Arena, in Manchester, United Kingdom. Groves, 25, hasn’t made the same kind of big money that Froch has hauled in during his career, so a loss for Groves would be a huge blow to his career due it undermining what he’s trying to accomplish.
In contrast, Froch can retire with a nice bundle of cash from his fights in the Super Six tournament as well as his bouts since that time against Lucian Bute, Yusaf Mack and Mikkel Kessler.
Groves told I Film London “I think even I Film London journalist are able to predict how Carl Froch is going to approach this fight. I’m not sure if you can really predict how how I’m going to approach this fight because there are a variety of different ways I can win…I’d relish it if he did [slug it out early]. Once I beat him he can retire.”
Groves is right about his ability to beat Froch in a variety of ways. Groves can adapt in a lot of different ways if somethings not working for him. If he’s getting out-slugged, he can switch it up to start moving around the ring and use his jab. If he fighting on the outside isn’t working, Groves can take it to the inside and give Froch a lot of problems. With Froch, he only has one real way of beating you and that’s by coming after you to slug it out.
Froch can box from the outside, but you have to be not thinking clearly to be stopped by Froch’s limp jab because it’s not a good enough jab to prevent a good fighter to keep from getting to him. I know Mikkel Kessler had problems with Froch’s jab last May, but Kessler looked like he didn’t even be there.
Kessler didn’t seem mentally engaged to fight until the 5th round, and by that time he’d already given up the first 4 rounds in Froch’s home country of the UK. Kessler was asking to lose by just standing there twiddling his thumbs for four rounds in a fight in the UK. Groves isn’t going to do something stupid like that. He’s going to actually fight, and Froch’s limp jab will be totally useless against him.
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