By Scott Gilfoid: Matchroom Sport promoter Eddie Hearn is really looking forward to the rematch this month between his fighter IBF/WBA super middleweight champion Carl Froch (32-2, 23 KO’s) and George Groves (19-1, 15 KO’s) on May 31st at the Wembley Stadium in London, UK. Hearn thinks that Froch and Groves will stand in the center of the ring and trade power shots in front of what will likely be 80,000 fans.
For some reason Hearn doesn’t think that it’s going to be a tactical fight, even though it would be in Groves’ best interest to fight in that manner. It helps Froch if Groves stands in front of him because he’ll have a better chance of wearing the younger fighter down, and possibly getting a non-controversial stoppage this time around.
“Those two will stand in the middle of the ring and knock lumps out of each other,” Hearn said to IFL TV.
The only time I see Groves standing in front of Froch is in the early rounds when he tests Froch’s chin with right hands. If Froch charges forward the way he did last time, we could see a quick knockout. If Froch doesn’t list his guard from his waist and put in front of his chin, he very well could get knocked out cold in front of 80,000 fans in the first 3 rounds. If Groves hasn’t knocked Froch out in the first three rounds, I believe he’s going to use his in an out attacking style to give Froch fits. Froch is slow of hand and foot, and he definitely won’t do well against a more mobile Groves. We saw how flustered Froch was in his fight with Andre Dirrell in 2009, and how Froch struggled against Andre Ward in 2011 when those fighters used a little bit of movement against him.
Hearn doubts that Groves’ trash talking of Froch will get to him enough to where it’ll give Groves any kind of advantage in the ring. At best, Hearn thinks it’ll give Groves a 1-2% advantage by having Froch slightly unsettled. But Hearn thinks that Froch will have put this behind him by the time he steps inside the ring on May 31st in front of 80,000 fans.
“What are we talking about, 1-2% edge? How much is what’s really affected by what’s said a couple of weeks ago…I can’t tell you have it’s going to affect Carl [fighting in front of 80,000 fans]. I can’t tell you how it’s going to affect Groves. One may crumble.”
Fighting in front of a huge crowd like that will likely cause Froch to take more chances than he normally does, because he fights on adrenalin. That should give Groves ample opportunities to land some crushing right hands and left hooks to the head of Froch in the first three rounds of the fight. Even if Froch does survive the first three rounds, he may end up taking so much punishment during that time that he’ll be a little punch drunk for the remainder of the fight and less able to do the things he needs to do in order to get the victory.
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