By Scott Gilfoid: If #2 WBA, #6 IBF, #7 WBO, George Groves (19-1, 15 KO’s) says he has WBA super middleweight champion Andre Ward (27-0, 14 KO’s) on his target list in the future, but first Groves needs to take care of IBF/WBA super middleweight champion Carl Froch (32-2, 23 KO’s) on May 31st in their rematch to take his straps from him and send him into a possible retirement. The Ward fight can wait until Groves avenges his loss to Froch.
“I want to be the best and unify the division, so Andre Ward will definitely be on my radar,” Groves said.
I can respect that. Groves has a lot of courage.
What’s interesting with this is the fact that Groves actually wants to fight Ward, and he’s not being dragged kicking and screaming into the fight with the talented Oakland, California resident. Ward has been interested in beating Froch again ever since he whipped him in the Super Six tournament in 2011, but he’s been unable to get Froch to accept his challenge and meet him in a suitable location in the United States.
Since Ward beat Froch, he has the right to ask for the rematch to take place in the U.S, because he’s the one that won the fight and it should be Froch who is looking to get the rematch instead of vice versa.
A Groves-Ward fight would be huge no matter where it took place. I don’t imagine Groves would have any problem fighting Ward in the U.S. Heck, Groves could end up being promoted by one of the U.S powerhouse promotional companies quite soon like Golden Boy Promotions or Top Rank. Groves still doesn’t have a promoter, and if he were to come over to the U.S and sign with one of those big promoters, we could see Groves fighting in Las Vegas, Nevada all the time. It would be interesting to see how long it would take for Groves to turn into a star in the U.S.
Groves just needs to beat Froch first and then he’ll be doing really well with his career. Groves could then fight Froch in a third fight and get a 50-50 purse split.
The trick to Groves beating Froch is to fight him using the quick in and out attacks that he was doing against James DeGale in their fight in 2011. That’s the perfect strategy to beat Froch. I would say fighting Froch on the inside would be the best strategy, but Groves doesn’t have an inside game like Ward, so I wouldn’t recommend him trying to do that.
If Groves had someone like Virgil Hunter to train him for this fight instead of Paddy Fitzpatrick, then I think Groves might learn how to fight on the inside well enough to smother Froch’s game, but that’s not realistic at this point. I mean, there’s still plenty of time for Groves to fly to the United States and hole up at Hunter’s gym in beautiful Oakland, California, but I doubt Groves would want to make that kind of a drastic move. I know I would do it, but then again I would see the big picture and realize how important a talented trainer like Hunter would be for this fight. I think Groves needs to dump Fitzpatrick and get on the phone with Hunter and sign him up as his trainer pronto.
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