A year of contrast for George Groves

By Gavin Duthie - 12/30/2016 - Comments

Image: A year of contrast for George Groves

By Gav Duthie: An incredible year for George Groves 25-3 (18) has ended bittersweet. On the one hand 4 victories in 2016 has secured him a WBA Super title shot against Fedor Chudinov but George’s last opponent Eduard Gutknecht spends Christmas and new year in an induced coma.

Groves form supreme

Many see Groves as a nearly man, after 3 failed attempts at securing a world title is he good enough to win one? The best preparation to find out is to fight others in a similar situation. Martin Murray has fought for 4 titles (Felix Sturm, Sergio Martinez, Gennady Golovkin, Arthur Abraham) with Gutknecht twice (Stiegletz, Juergen Braehmer). Groves showed his superiority over these two by not only winning but winning easily where former champions had struggled. Add this to his wins early on in the year against Andrea De Luisa and the previously unbeaten David Brophy its been a great year for George.

Mental fragility

Despite this great year and a world title shot looming his opponent Eduard Gutknecht is in a coma after a 12 round decision loss. The fight took place on 18 November but he will not be awake before 2017. After Groves 3 title defeats he thought about retiring and he seems to have taken the Gutknecht news hard. We can only hope Gutknecht recovers and can live a normal life all be it without boxing. He has a family and this Christmas all they and George will want is to have a full recovery. Groves has tried to raise money for him and is doing all he can. I have seen in the past when a Brian Rose opponent ended up in a coma he was battered in his next fight against journeyman Max Maxwell. Mike Perez career was virtually over after his fight with Magomed Abdusalamov ended in permanent disability for Mago. Jesus Chavez couldn’t box for over a year after Leavander Johnson died in 2005 and when he did he only won 2 out of 7 fights.

Title fight

I wonder if it is the right idea to commit to a title fight against Fedor Chudinov at this stage when so many other things are on his mind. At this point I would imagine that the most important thing for Groves is that Gutknecht recovers over putting a belt around his waist.