By Scott Gilfoid: With two days to go before the weigh-in for his fight against WBC super middleweight champion Badou Jack (19-1-1, 12 KOs) on Saturday night, #1 WBC George Groves (21-2, 16 KOs) is starting to look rather skeletal in appearance from the water weight that he’s losing so that he can try and make the 168 pound limit for the fight.
Groves is one of those fighters who has to lose a lot of weight to get down to the super middleweight limit, so it’s not surprising to see him looking really weight drained. But I hadn’t expected Groves to look this bad with still two days to go before the weigh-in.
I mean, just look at the photo of him and Jack standing there. Jack looks like he’s already on weight for the fight; whereas Groves has the look to him of a fighter who has already drained a great deal of water weight and still has more weight to drop to get down to the weight limit. Compared to how Groves looked in his recent fights against Christopher Rebrasse, Denis Douglin and Carl Froch, Groves looks terrible. He looks like he’s taken off a ton of weight.
What this means is we could see Groves winding up sluggish and heavy on his feet after he rehydrates for the fight in the 24 hours after Friday’s weigh-in. When you lose a bunch of weight and then quickly put it back on, it can help you overpower your opponent in the early rounds of the fight. But if the fight goes past six rounds, it’s when you see the weight-drained fighter struggle with their stamina.
Groves is fortunate that he’s facing a come forward fighter in the 31-year-old Badou rather than a mover like Andre Dirrell, because Groves would likely be totally lost if he had to try and handle Dirrell’s mobility. But it could also hurt Groves for the Badou fight by keeping him from being able to move around the ring to try and elude his pressure.
Four years ago when Groves was younger, lighter and quicker on his feet, he was able to move around for 12 rounds to beat James DeGale by a controversial 12 round majority decision. Never mind the fact that many boxing fans, this writer included, thought that DeGale should have been given the decision, Groves showed good movement. But I don’t think Groves will be able to use movement against Badou on Saturday night, because he’s likely going to be too sluggish from all the weight that he’s shifted in the 24 hours before the fight.
If Groves is going to be taking off 15-20 pounds of water weight, and then putting it back before the fight, it’s going to likely hurt him big time in the second half of the contest against Badou.
I remember Carl Froch making mention of Groves’ weight in the past in suggesting that he’s like a light heavyweight in size. I agree with Froch. I think Groves is fighting in the wrong division. I think he should be fighting at light heavyweight rather than super middleweight. If Groves fought at light heavyweight, he likely wouldn’t be looking weight drained right now. He’d likely not be too far away from the 175lb limit for the division. But with the way Groves looks now, I wouldn’t be surprised if he started his weight draining at 188 or 190, and has had to take off 20 pounds of water weight to get down to 168. If you’re weighing 188-190, you really should be fighting at light heavyweight rather than super middleweight.
“I like it. I like it,” Jack said via skysports.com. “I was the underdog before [when he won the title against Anthony Dirrell] and changed the role as well. We saw what happened in there? It’s less pressure. So I like it. I think I’m a better technical fighter. A better, smarter fighter.”
Badou is well aware that some boxing fans have him the underdog in this fight, but he doesn’t care a bit. Badou is actually motivated by him being the underdog, because it’s something that he’s very well accustomed to with his career. He was the underdog for his fight against Anthony Dirrell last April, but he fought a brilliant fight to come up with a close 12 round decision win.
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