Khan and Haye unhappy with Froch-Groves fight result

By Boxing News - 11/23/2013 - Comments

groves94By Allan Fox: Amir Khan, David Haye and Glen McCrory were greatly disappointed with the referee Howard John Foster’s performance in stopping tonight’s fight between IBF/WBA super middleweight champion Carl Froch (32-2, 23 KO’s) and George Groves (19-1, 15 KO’s) in what they felt was a premature stoppage in the 9th round in Manchester, UK.

They all thought that Groves was still game and fighting back a the time that Foster lassoed Groves by the neck and called a halt to the bout.

What Haye and McCrory also had a problem with was the referee grabbing Groves by a headlock and putting him in a defenseless position to where Froch was then given the chance to nail Groves with two shots while he was being held. They felt that if the referee wanted to halt the fight prematurely, then he should have grabbed Froch rather than Groves.

Khan thought that that the referee was favoring Froch throughout the fight, and he feels that Froch would have lost points if the fight were held elsewhere.

Khan said Sky Sports “There was a lot of warnings for elbows, heads. The referee was always favoring Carl. If this was anywhere else, in America or somewhere, there would have been a lot of points taken off” [from Froch].

Haye said “The referee grabbed Groves with a headlock and allowed Froch to hit him in the ribs. [Referee] Foster grabbed him in a headlock for some strange reason. This isn’t WWE, this is world class boxing. He [Groves] took an unnecessary shot to the ribs. He wasn’t given a chance to weather the storm. He wasn’t given a chance. You don’t stop a fight like that.”

McCrory: “When does a referee grab a guy that’s supposed to be in trouble in a headlock. Why wasn’t he trying to stop Carl from punching him?”

The reason why the referee Foster is getting so much heat from fans is that Groves was still fighting back at the time that Foster jumped in to halt the fight. Froch had landed some good shots, but Groves was still throwing shots back and he was making Froch miss with a lot of his punches in the round after he was hurt by a right hand.

The referee felt he was doing the fight thing but it looks like he wasn’t aware of how Groves was still fighting back at the time he chose to stop the bout.

Groves felt that the referee chose to halt the fight because he doesn’t have Froch’s rep for having a great chin like Froch, so he felt the referee had a bias going into the fight.



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