By Scott Gilfoid: #1 WBC George Groves (21-2, 16 KOs) and WBC super middleweight champion Badou Jack (19-1-1, 12 KOs) could be facing each other either on August 22nd or September 12th, according to Groves’ promoter Kalle Sauerland. They’re looking at both of those dates to decide on for his title shot against the 31-year-old Jack.
Groves will have to do some traveling though, because he’s not going to have his typical home country advantage for this one. Jack’s promoter made sure that the fight would take place in the United States, and that’s exactly where it’s going to take place.
Groves will need to try and do his best without his fans cheering him on in this fight. Whether he can fight without the support of his fans is unclear. It might not even matter. With the way Jack fights, I don’t think he can be beaten by Groves even if the fight were held on the moon.
“The fight is very much on. The dates we are looking at are August 22 and September 12,” said Kalle Sauerland to Skysports.com. “Even the earlier fight date will not be a problem. There is still two months to go. George started his training a while ago and he’s a guy who is generally very fit. He’s not someone who takes long breaks between fights.”
Groves suffered a head injury on Monday while training with the Royal Marines after he fell off the side of the boat and hit his head. Groves was quickly whisked to the hospital where he was in and out after his head was examined. Hopefully the bump to the head didn’t shake anything loose because he won’t last long against a puncher like Jack if he’s not physically sound.
“He’s had a long time out but he’s kept himself very active, and has had some good sparring,” Sauerland said. “There will be some minor adjustments to make in the next week but other than that we expect everything to go ahead.”
Groves has won his last two fights against Christopher Rebrasse and Denis Douglin. Those are the only fights Groves has had since being knocked out by Carl Froch last year in May. Not surprisingly, Groves’ promoters have been taking it slow with him, perhaps due to the way he was knocked out by Froch. Groves appeared to be knocked clean out by Froch for a few seconds.
When you get knocked out like Groves did, there are sometimes lingering after effects that can show up later down the line. You can also times be knocked out easier by even lesser punchers. Groves’ promoters haven’t put him in with a puncher until now, and they’ve got to hope that he doesn’t take a nose dive on the canvas as soon as Jack starts sitting down on his shots and nailing him with big shots.
Groves getting knocked out yet again would be a crushing blow for his career, because that would be his third knockout loss in his last five fights. Groves could forget about a unification bout against James DeGale, and he would likely need a long, long rest from the ring to try and recover from all the KO losses.
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