By Scott Gilfoid: George Groves (25-3, 18 KOs) and Fedor Chudinov have been officially added to the May 27th Kell Brook vs. Errol Spence Jr. card as the chief support at Bramall Lane in Sheffield, England. Groves-Chudinov is a decent fight, but I would have preferred a better match-up than this as the chief support. I’m sorry, but a 3-time world title challenger loser like Groves facing a guy that lost his last fight in Chudinov is not a great fight in my book.
(Photo Credit: Lawrence Lustig)
I don’t think it’s worthy of being on the Brook-Spence card as the co-feature. I do think Groves-Chudinov is worthy of being on the card, but just not as the co-feature. I see the fight as more deserving of being the first fight of the televised portion of the card.
There’s a lot of pressure on Groves to win this fight against Chudinov, because this is easily the best that he has in capturing a world title. If Groves can’t beat Chudinov, it would make him a 4-time loser when it comes to challenging for world titles. I think Groves would need to start seriously consider retiring from boxing, because if he can’t beat this guy, then I don’t see much out there for him. Groves could obviously still hang around and be a contender for the next five of six years before he ages out, but I don’t think that’s what he has in mind for his career.
Groves fancies himself as having the talent to be a world champion. I don’t agree with Groves, but he’s at least good enough to be a paper champion for 15 minutes. If Groves beats Chudinov on May 27, I can’t see him holding onto the WBA title for any length of time before he eventually loses it to his first decent contender he faces. That’s not a knock on Groves. It’s just an indication of Groves’ limitations as a fighter. It’s already been shown in the past that Groves has a chin problem that has hurt his ability to win at the upper levels of boxing. Groves also has a stamina problem that rears its ugly head from time to time in big fights.
Chudinov (14-1, 10 KOs) and Groves will be fighting for the vacant WBA Super World super middleweight title that was recently vacated by Felix Sturm. Chudinov, 29, previously held the WBA title, but lost it last February by a controversial 12 round majority decision to Sturm in Germany, Chudinov appeared to win the fight by 6 rounds on the Boxing News 24 scorecard for the fight, but unfortunately the decision went against him. It was pretty sad to watch how Chudinov was arguably robbed of a victory. I thought for sure the judges couldn’t blow this one by giving it to the wrong person, but sure enough, they gave it to the home fighter Sturm.
It’s good that Chudinov will have a chance to win back the title. The negative for Chudinov is he’s once again going into foreign territory where he might need a knockout for him to win the World Boxing Association 168 lb. title. I’d like to think that the judges will be fair and give it to the best man, but I’m not sure that they will. The crowd will surely be screaming for the 29-year-old Groves in this fight. You know that goes. I think the judges can sometimes be influenced unconsciously by screaming from fans, which will have an echo effect for every punch Groves lands in the fight.
“Fourth attempt, but the right time,” said Groves to Sky Sports News HQ. ”I feel that I’ve got the beating of him. He hasn’t boxed anyone as good as me.”
I wouldn’t get too cocky if I were Groves in thinking he can beat Chudinov. Yeah, Chudinov’s punches are glacially slow, but he can really hit. He’s got heavy hands. Chudinov is one of those George Foreman type bruisers, who scores his knockouts by hammering his opponents with slow but very powerful shots until they rattle apart at the seams. Chudinov has a chance of doing the same thing to Groves if he can hit him with enough heavy shots. Chudinov needs to focus some of his shots to the body of Groves the way that Badou Jack did in his win over Groves in 2015. Badou worked Groves over with hard body shots in the first 6 rounds of the match. By the second half of the fight, Groves was exhausted and fighting on fumes.
Badou then waltzed his way to a 12 round decision. The judges scored the fight a split decision. I had it as a clear win for Badou by a 9 rounds to 3 score. It wasn’t close. It’s good that at least 2 of the judges had the fight scored correctly, because it would have been pretty sad if Badou was robbed of a decision in that fight. Believe it or not, the Groves-Jack fight took place in Las Vegas, Nevada. That just goes to show you that you can get poor judging no matter where the fight takes place. Judge John McKaie from the UK was the one that scored it in Groves’ favor by a 114-113 score.
Groves has previously lost 3 times in challenging for world titles. This will be his fourth attempt. Don’t ask me why the sanctioning bodies keep giving Groves chance after chance while ignoring other contenders, who have been waiting for eons for a world title shots. It almost seems unfair for fighters that fail repeatedly like Groves to keep getting world title shots. I’m just saying. Boxing needs to get it’s act together. It’s like a team losing the Super Bowl in the NFL, and then immediately going to the Super Bowl again after beating a few powder puff teams that were hand-picked from the bottom of their respective divisions. I just don’t understand it.
Groves should have to at least beat a talented contender to get a world title shot each time. That’s not what’s happening tough. Groves got a world title shot against former IBF/WBA super middleweight champion Carl Froch in May 2013 after beating an over-the-hill 43-year-old Glen Johnson, James DeGale and Paul Smith. The win for Groves over DeGale was a controversial one, however, as he appeared to lose that fight. I thought DeGale was a clear winner. Froch defeated Groves twice in a row before hanging up his gloves and retiring from boxing.
“Some people thought it was a foregone conclusion that I would beat Badou Jack but I was fighting away from home on a Floyd Mayweather card,” said Groves. ”I ended up losing a split decision, but this time it’s in the UK.”
Oh my, Groves sounds like he’s in denial about his loss to Badou Jack, doesn’t he? Let me tell you, Groves didn’t lose to Badou because the fight was on Floyd Mayweather Jr’s card in the U.S. Groves lost that fight because he was KNOCKED DOWN by Badou, and because he wore down from the body shots he was getting hit with in the first 6 rounds. If Groves wants to win fights, he needs to stay on his feet. It’s kind of hard to bellyache about afterwards that you should have won the fight when you were knocked down hard and you stopped throwing punches in the last 6 rounds. Groves should be happy that the judges’ scores weren’t wider than they were, because if I was scoring it, he would have lost almost every round. Groves lost. He needs to get over it already and stop complaining about the past. It’s not a good look for him.
“Chudinov’s style; he’s a very tough eastern European fighter but I feel that I’ve got the beating of him. He hasn’t boxed anyone as good as me,” said Groves.
I favor Groves in this fight, but only because Chudinov is so slow. If he had any hand speed at all, I would favor Chudinov. Never the less, I still see this as a very hard fight for Groves. Martin Murray isn’t fast either, and he had Groves in trouble at one point in their fight in June 2016. Murray covered up like a sparring partner most of the fight, but when he finally threw a handful of punches in round 4, Groves looked like he was on the verge of being knocked out. It was hilarious to see, because Murray only landed a handful of shots and he had Groves on the ropes ready to go. If Murray had kept throwing punches at that rate, I think he would have knocked Groves out in the next round. Groves’ chin is not good at all.
In Groves’ last fight, he defeated Eduard Gutknecht by a 12 round unanimous decision last November in a fight that ended tragically. The 35-year-old Gutknecht collapsed after the fight in his dressing room and had to be taken to a nearby hospital to have surgery for swelling on his brain. The fight was one-sided after 4 rounds. You can argue that it should have been stopped well before the 12th round when it was no longer competitive.
