By Jim Dower: Former three-time world title challenger George Groves (23-3, 18 KOs) used his superior punching power to chop down previously unbeaten David Brophy (16-1-1, 1 KOs) in halting him in the 4th round to capture the vacant WBA International super middleweight title on Saturday night at the O2 Arena in London, UK.

A fraction of a second after getting hit with a right hand from Brophy, Groves fired back a crushing right hand to the head that put Brophy down on the canvas on one knee. He stayed down for a long time, and the fight was stopped when he got to his feet.

Groves hurt Brophy late in the 1st round with a hard right hand to the head that caused Brophy to retreat to the ropes. Brophy, 25, covered up for the remainder of the round while Groves teed off on him with shots.

By the 3rd round, Brophy’s right eye was red and closing from the hard shots he was absorbing. He wasn’t throwing many punches, and it appeared that he was trying to wait Groves out until the fight went into the second half of the bout before he started throwing shots. It wasn’t a plan that would work because he didn’t have the defense to block all the punches the 28-year-old Groves was throwing at him.

Groves is ranked #2 WBC, #8 WBO, #11 IBF in the super middleweight division. He’d like to get a rematch with WBC super middleweight champion Badou Jack, who defeated him by a 12 round decision last September. However, Jack has a fight coming up at the end of this month on April 30 against Lucian Bute. The winner of that fight will likely face the winner of the James DeGale vs. Rogelio Medina fight, which takes place on the same card. This means that Groves is likely going to need to wait until 2017 if he wants a shot at the WBC belt badly enough.

Groves could also try and get a fight against the winner of tonight’s fight between WBO champion Arthur Abraham and Gilberto Ramirez. That would be a tougher fight for Groves because Abraham and Ramirez are excellent punchers with good defensive skills. They would likely have little problems getting Groves into the second half of the fight, and Groves would need a good chin and stamina to beat those type of fighters.

Groves should try and get a rematch with DeGale because the money for the fight would be good. Groves beat DeGale by a 12 round decision five years ago in 2011. DeGale has improved a lot since then. Groves has struggled since then fight in losing twice to Carl Froch and once to Badou Jack. You can’t say that Groves has lost anything from his game. It’s more of a case of him fighting better fighters than himself.