Badou Jack vs. George Groves being moved to September 12th?

By Boxing News - 07/21/2015 - Comments

jack(Photo credit: Sumio Yamada) By Scott Gilfoid: The Badou Jack (19-1-1, 12 KOs) vs. George Groves (21-2, 16 KOs) has been moved off of the August 22n date, according to Dan Rafael. He says that the fight could be moved to September 12th instead. The fight had been scheduled for Showtime Championship Boxing for 8/22, but it’s been move for some reason.

It’s possible that the Jack-Groves fight is being moved to September 12th in order to beef up the undercard for the Floyd Mayweather Jr. vs. Andre Berto fight at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, Nevada. Adding that fight to the card will make it a lot more interesting card.

There’s still no official word whether the Mayweather-Berto fight will be televised on CBS on free TV in the United States or on Showtime pay-per-view.

“Not sure of the reason yet but was told today from source who would know that Badou Jack-George Groves Aug 22 Showtime fight is off. #boxing,” Rafael said.

For Groves, it means that he’ll have to wait a little bit longer for him to get his title shot against Badou Jack, if the fight does get moved to the September 12th date. That’s not good news for Groves because he’s been out of the ring for the past eight months. If he doesn’t fight until September, then Groves will have been out of the ring for 10 months going into the fight. That’s not the kind of activity that you want when you’re facing a talent like Badou Jack.

What’s worse for Groves is he hasn’t fought anyone good since his fight against Carl Froch last year in May. After that defeat, Groves fought in September against Christopher Rebrasse and beat him to win the EBU super middleweight title. In Groves’ next fight in November of 2014, he beat someone named Denis Douglin. Groves didn’t look good in either of those bouts, and he seems to have lost something from his two knockout losses to Froch.

I don’t think Groves is as bad off as heavyweight David Price since his two losses to Tony Thompson, but I think he’s lose to being at that level. Something definitely isn’t right with Groves since his last Froch fight. Rebrasse and Douglin both had Groves hurt, and that’s obviously troubling because neither of them are considered big punchers.

I think that Jack is all wrong for the 27-year-old Groves. Jack hits too hard, is too good of a pressure fighter, and he’s too talented for a fighter in the class of Groves to be fighting. I see Groves more of the type who would be at home fighting the likes of Frank Buglioni, Callum Smith, Rocky Fielding and Julio Cesar Chavez Jr., rather than a talent like Jack. But at least Groves will find out firsthand that he doesn’t belong up there fighting for world titles. You would have thought that it was obvious that Groves didn’t have the talent to fight for a world title after Froch whipped him twice, but the World Boxing Council threw Groves a bone by ordering him to fight Rebrasse in a WBC 168lb eliminator off the back of his two knockout losses to Froch. I cannot recall a sanctioning body ever doing that before, and I still understand what criteria the WBC was following in picking Groves out for the eliminator after his two knockout losses rather than looking to find a contender whose career was moving along in a positive way rather than a negative one. It’s like an NFL team being able to go to the Super Bowl after they’ve been beaten in a regular playoff game followed by the Championship game. It makes no sense.



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