By Scott Gilfoid: James DeGale is giving George Groves (19-1, 15 KO’s) a good shot at beating IBF/WBA super middleweight champion Carl Froch (32-2, 23 KO’s) in their fight on May 31st. DeGale sees the 36-year-old Froch as having slipped in the talent department due to his advancing age, and he believes that Groves is going to possibly beat him this time. Groves obviously has learned from their previous fight and won’t make the same mistakes as he did in their fight last November. The referee will be a different one, so we might not see another premature stoppage.
“I think he’s [Froch] had some hard fights, some tough fights,” DeGale said to Sky Sports. “He’s been around for a while now and I think probably his best days are behind him, so maybe Groves has got him at the right time…I think it’ll be very close…If you’re going by the last fight, a lot of people will be going for Groves.”
I agree with what DeGale’s saying here. Froch has slipped a notch or two since his 2nd fight with Mikkel Kessler, and he’s definitely ready to be beaten by Groves. Heck, Groves would have beaten Froch last November if he had the wherewithal to avoid clinching with him, and if he knew how to get away from him after he was in close. Groves was getting hammered with rabbit punches to the back of the head when he would clinch with Froch, and the referee wasn’t on the job to take points away from Froch like he should have for the fouling.
At the same time, Groves had a terrible habit of backing straight up with his gloves glued to his head when he would come away from Froch after having thrown a shot. It was like watching a sparring partner back away from inside action, and I couldn’t believe his trainer didn’t tell Groves to stop doing this because it was giving Froch all kinds of chances to tee off on him. If Groves fights like that in the rematch next May, he’ll lose the fight. Someone needs to tell Groves that you don’t back away slowly from Froch with your gloves covering your head. You have to move away quickly while leaning backwards.
Groves needs more sparring with the talented Andre Dirrell so that he can teach him how to get in and get out without getting hit, because right now Groves has a major flaw in his game that Froch will take advantage of if he doesn’t fix it by May 31st.
Groves whips Froch in the rematch if he fixes the mistakes he made in the previous fight, and if the referee stops Froch from throwing rabbit punches and hitting on the break. I still can’t believe how the referee Howard John Foster let Froch get away with so much fouling without taking off points, because I think Froch should have lost at least 6 points for the rabbit shots and the hitting on the break. When a fighter goes into a clinch, it doesn’t give you permission to brain them in the back of the head, and I saw a lot of that from Froch in that fight.
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