By Scott Gilfoid: Former two time world title challenger George Groves (19-2, 15 KOs) is thinking way ahead of his WBC super middleweight title eliminator fight against Christopher Rebrasse on September 20th and Groves’ subsequent title shot against WBC champion Anthony Dirrell towards a third fight against IBF/WBA super middleweight champion Carl Froch in 2015.
Groves says he thinks he could beat Froch on the third try. Personally speaking, I’m not sure why a third fight would be any different than the other two times Groves fought Froch. If he couldn’t beat him in those fights, then I’m pretty sure he won’t be able to beat Froch in a third fight.
Whether Groves will ever get in the position for a third fight with Froch is doubtful because he’ll need to face the hard hitting Dirrell, who hits about as hard as Froch does but with much more speed. Groves was knocked out by a shot he didn’t see from the slow-punching Froch last May. Just imagine what’ll happen with the much faster Dirrell starts nailing Groves with shots.
“They’re talking about us fighting again next year so if I go about my business how we set out and win this WBC title and he decides he wants to box on,” Groves said to Skysports.com. “I’d love to have another crack. I’ve lost two out of two so far but I still think I can beat him.”
Ignoring the fact that Groves is going to have incredibly problems trying to get past Anthony Dirrell, I’m not sure that Froch’s promoter Eddie Hearn can sell a third fight between Groves and Froch.
Even if Groves were to beat Rebrasse and Dirrell, how many boxing fans in the UK would want to sit through a third fight between Froch and Groves? Sure, they might be mildly interested in watching the fight if were shown free and they had nothing else going on that particular Saturday night, but to actually have to pay to see a fight where you know what the outcome will be, I don’t see boxing fans wanting to see a third fight. That’s even worse than the Froch vs. Mikkel Kessler fight that Hearn brings up every now and then.
I don’t know how Hearn could talk about a third fight between Kessler and Froch when Kessler hasn’t fought since getting beaten by Froch last year in May. I mean, I could understand Hearn being excited about a Froch-Kessler third fight if Kessler had stayed busy and had picked up some fine scalps to add to his collection, but that’s not what he’s been doing. He’s just sitting and waiting for a rematch, and I can’t believe Hearn would actually put third Froch-Kessler fight together under those conditions. You wouldn’t see top fighters like Manny Pacquiao and Floyd Mayweather Jr picking out a guy that’s been sitting ever since he got beaten over a year ago. It’ll actually be over 2 years of inactivity for Kesssler when/if Froch fights him in 2015.
I’ve seen a couple of Rebrasse’s fights in the past, and yeah, I can see Groves this guy. Rebrasse is slow, easy to hit and not a big puncher. In other words, he’s perfect for Groves to pick up an easy win against.
The WBC has Rebrasse ranked highly for some reason and I can’t see why when looking at him fight. I see him as bottom 50 caliber fighter, and definitely not No.2, which I where the WBC has him ranked now. But once Groves gets past Rebrasse, he’s going to likely be in for a world of hurt when he faces Dirrell. All the hand speed and power that Dirrell has, and his willingness to slug with his opponents early. It’s going to be really rough on Groves.
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