By Scott Gilfoid: Former super middleweight champion Carl Froch chimed in with some of his thoughts about George Groves (23-3, 18 KOs) after watching him and Martin Murray (33-3-1, 16 KOs) in the Gloves are Off. Froch wants to see if Groves’ old confidence was there from his two fights with him in the past.
Froch two knockout wins over Groves seems to have knocked the confidence right out of him unfortunately. However, Froch says he spotted some of the old confidence returning in Groves during the ‘Gloves are Off’ special.
Froch came away from watching the special thinking that Groves feels he’s superior to Murray, and he believes he’s going to win. The two fighters will be facing each other next Saturday night on June 25 on the undercard of the Dominic Breazeale vs. Anthony Joshua card at the O2 Arena in London, UK.
“Groves clearly thinks he’s far superior to Murray and he made that clear. Most of British boxing has this down as a genuine 50-50 fight but he insists he is the ‘heavy favourite,’” said Froch in his column at skysports.com. “The Groves of old was at least entertaining. He was a cocksure, arrogant young kid, who would give it large and come out with all sorts of rubbish. And we did get bits of that here.”
Well, I hope Froch wasn’t expecting Groves to be on his knees cringing in front of Murray during the ‘Gloves are Off’ special. I mean, what did Froch expect Groves to do? The guy has got to be confident, even if he’s faking it. If Groves actually thinks he’s going to win the fight, then so much the better. There’s nothing wrong with Groves liking his chances in this fight, is there? It’s not as if Murray has looked unbeatable lately.
Murray got beaten by Arthur Abraham by a 12 round split decision last November in a fight that was very winnable. If Murray hadn’t wasted so much time hiding behind his clam-shell guard, he would have won the fight. But no, he had to hide behind the old clam-shell, and he gave the fight away.
If nothing else, I expect Groves to look fantastic for the first eight rounds of the fight. After that, I see Groves gassing out badly and fighting on fumes from rounds nine through twelve. If Murray can’t get a knockout or if he hasn’t won at least two of the first eight rounds, then he’ll lose the fight. I don’t see Murray taking any chances in this fight by trying to throw punches in the first three-quarters of the contest. I think he’ll hide behind his high guard and play it safe like he did in his fights against Gennady Golovkin, Sergio Martinez, Felix Sturm and Arthur Abraham.
By the time Murray does stop hiding behind his clam-shell guard in round nine, things will be bleak for him with him needing a knockout or multiple knockdowns in each round for him to get the win. Unfortunately, Murray isn’t a big puncher, so I don’t see how he’ll be able to pull out a win or a draw in the last four rounds of the contest. Believe me, if Murray is behind in the fight by the 9th, he’ll lose.
“I am not going to have a proper go at Groves and his over-inflated opinion of himself but he has failed three world title attempts. And on The Gloves Are Off, he blamed Paddy Fitzpatrick again. He’s always got an excuse,” said Froch.
Yeah, it’s true that Groves failed on three attempts to win a world title, but he’s not fighting for a world title on Saturday. He’s fighting Murray, a fighter who has failed on four attempts at winning a world title.
If Groves was challenging for a world title on Saturday, I would say he’s probably going to get whipped against any of the champions, but we’re Murray here, and there’s a big difference. Froch needs to stick with the current fight, not on thinking of Groves’ past failures. It’s true Groves has failed in the past, and he’ll fail in the future, I don’t see any of that as being relevant here.
Groves is fighting Murray, and it’s a very winnable fight for Groves. All he needs to do is hit Murray with every punch in the book for the first eight rounds, and pile up the rounds. Murray will make it easy by hiding behind in his clam-shell like he has in the past for his big fights.
When Groves does gas out in the 9th, he can get on his bike and run for the last four rounds to preserve his victory. As long as Groves doesn’t do something incredibly stupid like fight with his back against the ropes like he did in his knockout losses to Froch, he should be able to win this fight against Murray by a 12 round decision. I see Groves winning eight rounds to four. Those four rounds that he loses will no doubt be rounds nine through twelve.