(Photo credit: Idris Erba/Mayweather Promotions) By Scott Gilfoid: WBC super middleweight champion Badou Jack (19-1-1, 12 KOs) plans on sending #1 WBC challenger George Groves (21-2, 16 KOs) back home to the UK a loser on September 12th at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, Nevada. Jack, 31, says he’s going to be shooting for a knockout over the 27-year-old Groves when the two of them meet up next month in their Showtime pay-per-view contest.
Jack figures that he’s got the better stamina and better defense of the two by far. While Jack has some respect for Groves, he doesn’t see him as being nearly talented enough to take his WBC title from him.
“I got better defense than him,” Jack said about Groves to behindthegloves.com. “I’m going for a knockout. I might steal the show. That’s the plan.”
I believe that Jack has a very good chance of stealing the shot from Floyd Mayweather Jr. and Andre Berto, who will be fighting in the headliner fight on the card. Compared to the Mayweather-Beto fight, the Jack vs. Groves match-up is the much better fight because it involves two relevant fighters.
You can’t say that with the Mayweather vs. Berto fight because Berto is just some guy the World Boxing Association gave a high rating to after a couple of wins over weak opposition in Josesito Lopez and Steven Upsher Chambers.
“I’m ready right now to fight. We still have a month to go and we’re ready,” Jack said. “I’ve always been strong mentally but I get some extra confidence from having that green belt. You still have to stay humble and keep working hard. Groves is a pretty good fighter. I definitely think it’s going to be an exciting fight. I know he’s coming to get what’s mine and he’s coming to fight.”
Jack will need to walk Groves down in order to get the KO victory, because Groves will be moving around in circles a lot, and likely jumping in and out like he normally does. But there’s one thing that Groves can’t handle it’s pressure. You put pressure on Groves, and he breaks down mentally and crumbles, as we saw in his two knockout losses to Carl Froch in the past.
The WBC must really like Groves for them to have given him an opportunity to fight in their WBC 168lb title eliminator off the back of two straight KO losses to Froch. I mean, I could understand the WBC letting Groves fight in an eliminator with one knockout, but definitely not consecutive knockouts.
That move really surprised me because it’s not every day that one of the sanctioning bodies will allow a fighter with a mess of knockouts to fight in one of their eliminators, because it cheapens the whole process. It would be like a prestigious school like Yale or Harvard granting admission to a student with a D average in his senior year of high school. Yeah, they could do that if they wanted to, but it would make the schools look bad. I guess the WBC doesn’t mind.
“He’s fought in the UK in front of a lot of people, but it’s a different stage in Vegas,” Jack said about Groves. “I think I’m the overall better fighter. He’s going to try to knock me out and I’m going to try to knock him out. It’s going to be a great fight. I’m definitely going for the knockout.”
Comments are closed.