By Scott Gilfoid: George Groves (19-1, 15 KO’s) has zero interest in fighting IBF/WBA super middleweight champion Carl Froch (32-2, 23 KO’s) in his own neck of the woods at Nottingham’s Forest Ground on May 31st in their rematch. It’s not that Groves is worried about fighting Froch in his own home town of Nottingham. Groves is more concerned about the limiting size of the Forest Ground, as it holds only 30,000 fans when it’s jammed back. Groves thinks his rematch with Froch deserves a much bigger venue, something like the 80,000 seat national rugby stadium.
“Twickenham is down the road from me and it holds 80,000,” Groves said to Sky Sports. “I am sure they [the fans] would rather go there than Nottingham…Hearn says this is the biggest fight in British boxing history so Nottingham just isn’t big enough, and it definitely needs something bigger. But it doesn’t matter because I will beat him in his own backyard.”
I agree with Groves. If Hearn really thinks the Froch-Groves II fight will be the biggest fight in British boxing history, then why on earth would he ever agree to stage it in a 30,000 seat venue like in Nottingham’s Forest City Ground? Maybe Hearn his doubts about well it’ll do? Of course, Hearn could take a bath on this if he gets the fight staged at Twickenham and only 30,000 fans show up for the 80,000 seat stadium. I’m sure the price has got to be a lot more to rent out the facility than it would be for the smaller Nottingham venue.
It seems to me that Groves should be pushing for a neutral venue, because if he gets stuck fighting Froch in Nottingham, he likely won’t have a fan in the place. Groves doesn’t need to put himself in a position where he might need a knockout to get the win against Froch, because you know how it goes when fighters are in their hometowns.
Groves needs to be ready to for an anything goes type of fight with Froch on May 31st, because I saw all kinds of rough stuff from Froch in their fight last November. While Groves was keeping it clean for the most part, Froch was roughing him up in close and the referee didn’t lift a finger to clean up the action.
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