By Scott Gilfoid: After his recent humiliating defeat against WBC super middleweight champion Badou Jack on September 12th, three-time world title challenger George Groves (21-3, 16 KOs) is in no rush to get back into the ring against top level opposition like IBF 168lb champion James DeGale.
Groves beat DeGale by a controversial decision in 2011, when Groves was in the prime of his career. Unfortunately, Groves doesn’t look like that same fighter anymore. He’s looking old nowadays and not the young whippersnapper he was back them. Further, DeGale has improved and the roles have reversed.
Groves feels like he can make that fight happen anytime he wants to, and he’ll choose the time when he wants to face him. Groves doesn’t say how long he’s going to wait before he starts facing top level opposition again, but for his sake he needs to think seriously about getting back in there with them soon. Groves looks like he’s doing downhill as a fighter. This isn’t just me saying this.
A lot of fans are saying this. It’s right there in front of you when you look at his last five fights against Carl Froch [x 2], Badou Jack, Christopher Rebrasse and Denis Douglin. Groves looks like a fighter who shot his load in his first fight against Froch in 2013, and he’s not been the same fighter since.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EkVq2Q_OZ08
It might be that Groves is aging at an accelerated pace. We’ve seen that before with fighters that get old quick. It could be that Groves’s confidence is shot since his losses to Froch, or it could be a combination of him having problems with his stamina and taking hard head shots. It was really disturbing seeing Groves floundering on the canvas in the 1st round against Badou Jack last September. Jack isn’t a puncher, and if a guy like him could put Groves down, then that’s not a good sign for Groves that he can have any future at 168.
“The truth is, I am in no rush to fight James DeGale,” Groves said to skysports.com. “I’ll fight James DeGale when I am ready; not physically ready, but when I want it, because I’ve beaten him twice already. I’m not in an immediate rush. I’m not in a rush to be fighting at the highest level.”
Well, you can analyze and spin Groves’ above statement anyway you want to, but I don’t think you can twist it to mean a positive thing. If Groves isn’t in a rush to get back into the ring to fight the highest level, then that tells me that he doesn’t believe that he can compete with the fighters at the highest level. I mean, come on. The guy has 3 losses in his last 5 fights. What does that tell you?
I can kind of understand why Groves wouldn’t want to fight a top talent right now after taking the licking he got from Badou Jack, but I don’t think Groves has the proper shelf life left in him to be staying away from the talented fighters in the division. Groves is 27 now, but he doesn’t look like a young 27.
You can make an argument that Groves might be more like a 35-year-old fighter rather than a 27-year-old. That’s why I think he’s wasting his time if he’s going to not be fighting the top caliber opposition. Groves needs to be fighting a lot and fighting the best guys he can in 12 round fights. He can’t go back to the fodder he was facing before he got whipped by Froch twice.
Groves is no longer with trainer Paddy Fitzpatrick, and he’s currently looking to eventually get a new trainer. Who that will be is unclear. He could end up with Rob McCracken or Shane McGuigan. As good as those guys are, I don’t know if they’ll be able to fix Groves’ stamina and chin issues. They’re not miracle workers.
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