By Scott Gilfoid: After watching #1 WBC, #6 WBA, #10 IBF George Groves (21-2, 16 KOs) struggle to defeat little known 2nd tier fighter Denis Douglin (17-4, 10 KOs) by an unimpressive 7th round stoppage on November 22nd of this month, I have to say that Groves has his work cut out for him when he gets inside the ring against WBC super middleweight champion Anthony Dirrell (27-0-1, 22 KOs) next year in their clash.
Groves earned the right to face Dirrell after beating little known Christopher Rebrasse by a lackluster 12 round unanimous decision last September in their WBC super middleweight title eliminator.
The World Boxing Council really threw a bone to Groves by letting him fight the mediocre Rebrasse in the WBC eliminator after having been knocked out twice in a row by IBF/WBA super middleweight champion Carl Froch. Just why the WBC let Groves fight in an eliminator bout after back to back knockouts is largely unknown.
All I know is I’ve never seen a sanctioning body pull a move like that before, because they usually have fairly strict standards in terms of who they allow to fight in eliminators. Letting a fighter fight an eliminator after consecutive knockout losses is obviously something that’s rarely seen.
With the way that Groves struggled to beat Douglin this month, I just can’t see how Groves will have any chance at all against a talented fighter like Dirrell. I mean, Douglin, a fighter with less than impressive credentials, was able to hit Groves at will with his slow power shots, and the fight was fairly close at the time that Groves finally scored a stoppage. The stoppage was premature, as Douglin was still fighting back at the time the referee Victor Loughlin opted to stop the bout at 2:54 of the round with Douglin still fighting back.
Groves seems to have aged from his two knockout losses to Froch. Not only is he no longer fighting at a high level, but he also looks older and isn’t as sharp as he was before the two knockout defeats.
I know Groves is all excited about fighting for a world title against Dirrell, but I think it’s the wrong opponent and the wrong time for Groves. He’d be better off not taking the fight with Dirrell in order to take his time and work his way back up slowly to where he was before the losses to Froch. I mean, if you throw Groves in the ring with Dirrell right now or in early 2015, Dirrell is going to take him apart with his left hand bombs and likely leave Groves face down on the canvas fast asleep.
There’s a time for when Groves should be fighting for a world title, and I don’t think this is the right time for him. It’s definitely not the right opponent. Groves would be better off trying to get a fight against WBO champion Arthur Abraham, because he’s clearly the weak link among the super middleweight champions. I don’t think Groves can beat him, but he stands a much better chance of competing with him than he does against a talent like Dirrell.
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