By Cameron Gillon: George Groves and James Degale long time rivals even from the amateur days, they both shared and fought in the same boxing club and have never liked each other bit. Degale had claimed for years that Groves has lived in his shadow, that Groves was jealous of his achievements and the things he has done by winning a gold medal at the Olympics and becoming a British Olympic champion.
In 2011 a fight was made between the two with Frank Warren at the time promoting the fight. The Build up was watched closely by many fans and it was the fight that put both fighters in the public eye a bit more.
British boxing fans love a domestic fight and with the hatred between the two fighters it really caught a lot of fans eyes. Throughout the months of verbal assaults, Groves was seen as the good fighter, the one who wants to do his talking in the ring with Degale being the opposite by throwing insults every time the two were together.
Groves vs Degale took place on the 21st May 2011 for the British and commonwealth super middleweight titles, both undefeated fighters going into the fight. After 12 rounds of boxing, Groves won on a majority decision. Some fans fought Degale won the fight which left a possibility of a rematch happening in the near future. This of course didn’t happen as Groves felt he deserved to go onto bigger and better things now hes beaten Degale and Degale should re-build.
Since that fight, George Groves has gone onto bigger things than anyone would of imagined. He knocked out Noe Gonzalez Alcoba on the undercard of the Carl Froch vs Mikkel Kessler 2 fight at the 02 Arena which put him in a mandatory position to get a shot at the IBF world title which was held by Carl Froch, Froch beat Kessler to win the WBA title and unify both belts and Groves was very open about wanting to fight Carl Froch next. Froch wasn’t that keen at first but chose to fight Groves at the phones 4u arena in a highly anticipated controversial stoppage by Howard Foster in giving Froch the win, Groves arguably won every single round up to the stoppage and Froch was to far behind on the cards to get back in scoring so knew a KO was needed to win the fight. In the rematch at a packed sold out Wembley stadium which had 80,000 people in, Froch put the year worth of Groves saga behind him and answered all critics of him being past his best days with a astonishing right hand which destroyed Groves and left him on the ring apron and out in the 8th round.
On the same card James Degale fought the undefeated american Brandon Gonzalez. James Degale took Gonzalez apart and the fight was stopped in the 4th round which put Degale as the next mandatory for the IBF title for the winner of Froch/Groves, if Groves won the fight then a rematch would definitely be happening for sure between Groves and Degale, but due to Froch winning its unsure on the future of the IBF title as Froch is looking for a final fight in Vegas against Julio Chavez Jr, if that fight was to happen then Froch would have to vacate the IBF title. Degale has been open about wanting to fight Froch for the title as he wants to beat the champion to win rather facing a lower opposition fighter to win it. But its a big possibility that Degale could fight Froch if Chavez fight falls through.
George Groves has a fight in September against Chris Rebrasse as a final eliminator for the WBC title currently held by Sakio Bika, its not known if Bika will be the champion by the time Groves has his fight as he is facing Anthony Dirrell who Bika struggled with in their last fight which ended in a draw, Dirrell is definitely a better fighter than Bika so you feel Dirrell will win that fight, but Bika has heavy hands so it should be a good fight. George Groves is coming back quickly from that brutal knockout in May and it will be interesting to see what shape he is in for the fight, Rebrasse isn’t known for having power so Groves should be safe from taking some big shots in this fight, but if he comes through he will have a tough fight to beat Bika/Dirrell.
If Degale wins the IBF title and Groves ends up with the WBC it can set up another big domestic fight with a good build up and a outdoor arena and a unification fight
Comments are closed.