(Photo credit: Esther Lin/Showtime) By Scott Gilfoid: #1 WBC George Groves (21-2, 16 KOs) is putting himself in a tough position where he’s going to look really bad on Saturday night if he loses to WBC super middleweight champion Badou Jack (19-1-1, 12 KOs) in their fight at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, Nevada.
Groves, 27, has been bragging long and hard during the buildup to their fight by telling the boxing public how he’s a better fighter than the 31-year-old Badou, and how he’s going to beat him when the two of them start throwing blows.
With all the self-promoting that Groves has done, he’s going to wind up with pie smeared all across his face if he gets whipped by Badou and exposed as badly as he was in his two knockout losses to Carl Froch. With his trash talking before both of those fights, Groves had some fans convinced that he was going to win both of them, but instead of winning, Groves wound up losing when he was stopped on both occasions.
“I’m feeling great, really focused and had a great camp,” Groves said. “On Saturday all I have to do is be myself and I will get the job done. Jack is a good opponent but he is not as good as me.”
Instead of Groves saying all he needs to do is be himself, he should be thinking of trying to emulate someone else who can take punches without going to sleep for a snooze inside the ring. We found out in the past that it wasn’t enough to be Groves when he was beaten by Froch twice.
Groves hasn’t faced anyone good since those fights. He was given a shot at the WBC 168lb eliminator by the World Boxing Organization last year when they ordered Groves to fight Christopher Rebrasse for the No.1 spot. This came after Groves had been knocked out twice in a row by Froch.
So the WBC was willing to have Groves fight in an eliminator despite the fact that he had been knocked out twice in a row. The fighters that the WBC passed up for this privilege were talents like Andre Dirrell. It didn’t make sense that the WBC would pass up Dirrell in favor of a fighter who had lost his last two fights in Groves.
“I’m ready to go. I’m ready to knock him out,” Badou said. “He [Groves] says he is going to win, but we’ll see how it goes on fight night. This is my first defense so I’m excited and absolutely ready for Saturday.”
Badou looked sensational in defeating Anthony Dirrell in his last fight in April. The pressure that Badou put on Dirrell was constant and quite heavy. I mean, I thought Dirrell had done enough to deserve the win, but I can understand why the judges may have wanted to give the fight to Badou. He was constantly coming forward all night long, and doing good work on the inside.
If Badou fights like he did against Dirrell, then Groves won’t stand a chance of winning the fight. Badou is just too big, too strong and too talented for Groves in my view.
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