George Groves: A loss could spell terrible things

By Boxing News - 05/27/2017 - Comments

Image: George Groves: A loss could spell terrible things

By Scott Gilfoid: George Groves (25-3, 18 KOs) fully understands what could happen to his career if he were to lose his fight tonight against former world champion Fedor Chudinov (14-1, 10 KOs) in their fight on Sky Box Office PPV from Bramall Lane in Sheffield, England. A loss for Groves tonight against Chudinov could mean that it’s time for the 29-year-old to hang up the gloves and retire.

Groves could obviously hit the reset button on his career for the 4th time, but it’s painfully obvious that he’s flawed to such an extent that no amount of tune-up fights against fodder is going to improve those flaws in Groves’ game. He’s not going to have great stamina ever, and his chin is punch resistance is likely always going to be weak. Retirement would seem to be the best option for Groves if he gets whipped tonight by Chudinov.

Groves has lost his only 3 fights he’s had against good opposition. Groves proudly says he’s won his last 4 fights, but what he’s not revealing is that’s not been facing the cream of the 168-pound division. Groves’ once promising career has pretty much imploded ever since he was knocked out by Carl Froch for the FIRST time in 2013.

Another knockout to Froch would follow. Groves then took a step down in competition in facing Badou Jack, and he promptly lost to him TOO. That’s not good news for Groves. The loss to Groves seemed to knock what little confidence he had left out of him. Groves has moved even further down in his competitive in his last 4 fights and he’s winning again, albeit against weak opposition. Here are Groves’ last 4 wins:

– Eduard Gutknecht

– Andrea Di Luisa

– David Brophy

– Martin Murray

Chudinov is likely going to use the blueprint that Carl Froch and Badou Jack created in how to beat Groves by pressuring him nonstop. The blueprint is how Chudinov fights anyway. It’s not news to the boxing public that Chudinov is a come forward type of fighter, who applies even pressure throughout his fights. You won’t have to coax Chudinov to attack Groves tonight when the two get inside the ring at Bramall Lane. Chudinov likes to pressure his opponents. I see Chudinov as a heavier, slower, less technical version of Gennady “GGG” Golovkin.

Chudinov doesn’t have the boxing skills that Golovkin has, but he does have the same ability and mindset to go out and pressure nonstop. Golovkin is at his best when he’s pressuring his opponents. We saw what happened in Golovkin’s last fight against Danny Jacobs when he deviated from his normal pressure style of fighting by choosing to box the American. It didn’t work so well for Golovkin. Chudinov doesn’t have the same luxury as Golovkin to choose between boxing and slugging in his fights. Chudinov MUST slug with Groves, because he lacks the speed and the excellent jab for him to stay on the outside and box all night long.

Chudinov is going to be looking to wear Groves down like an old clock by forcing him to defend against his heavy shots. Chudinov doesn’t have explosive power that you see with some guys in boxing. Chudinov has more sledgehammer like blows that remind me of how George Foreman used to fight. Even with the speed not there, Chudinov hits hard and with power. If Groves gets hit enough with those slow, jarring shots from Chudinov, it should wear him down over the course of the fight. Chudinov beats up his opponents with his hard punches. Whether Groves can take Chudinov’s big punches for 12 rounds is the question. We’ll find out tonight.

“I’m hoping I’ll go and win a world title,” said Groves to secondsout.com. “Any loss for me at this stage in my career can spell terrible things. This is another fight,” said Groves.

Chudinov, 29, says he’s seen areas in Groves’ game that makes him think he’ll beat him tonight. We’ll have to see. The Russian Chudinov has the punching power to knock Groves out. Chudinov might not have the hand speed though. He’s very slow. We saw that in Chudinov’s last fight against Felix Sturm last year. Chudinov was getting beaten to the punch, and losing rounds in getting hit with just Sturm’s jab. Sturm wasn’t even trying to open up on Chudinov with his power shots. Sturm was able to control the action with his jab by staying on the outside as much as possible. Chudinov still appeared to land enough shots to win the fight, but he was fighting in Sturm’s home country of Germany. When you’re the visiting fighter, you need to really do a job on your opponent. Chudinov didn’t dominate Sturm enough to get the win.

I had a great year last year with 4 back to back wins. The fights last year were good building fights for the Chudinov fight. I don’t like easy fights. I perform better when I’m under pressure of being in a real fight, a tough fight. I’ve been in good company. I lost to Badou Jack by a split decision. It could have gone either way. If I was in London, I’d probably be a world champion. 3 defeats, but I didn’t get beat up. I don’t feel exposed. I don’t feel like I don’t belong at this level,” said Groves.

Carl Froch thinks Groves isn’t the fighter he was in the past, and he doesn’t think he’ll ever get back to that stage. This doesn’t appear to be a case of Froch being mean-spirited towards Groves due to some bad blood from some of the things that he said about him in the build-up to their two fights. I believe that Froch genuinely thinks that Groves isn’t the same fighter he once was. All you need to do is look at Groves’s fights nowadays to see how less aggressive he is now compared to the way he fought before his first loss to Froch. Groves doesn’t attack his opponents with the same ferocity as he did in the past. Groves looks afraid and overly cautious now. It’s as if he doesn’t trust his own chin and stamina to lead him to victory, when he’s facing over-matched opposition like Di Luisa, Brophy, Murray and Gutknecht.

”I don’t think so. In my opinion, we are never going to see the old George Groves,” said Carl Froch to skysports.com in talking about his belief that Groves was at his best in his first fight with him in 2013. ”Maybe because of the two losses, maybe experience, but the one I fought was dangerous. We’ve seen him doing that in flashes, but that’s all,” said Froch.

I happen to agree with Mr. Froch. I do believe that Groves was at his very best when he fought Froch the first time. Groves fought well in that fight, dropping Froch to the canvas and nailing him with some monstrous shots. The thing that Groves didn’t plan for was him running out of gas in the 6th and getting stopped in the 9th. Yeah, it was a controversial stoppage, to be sure. But, Groves was still very, very tired, and he wasn’t going to win the last 3 rounds in my opinion. Even if the referee had let Groves continue fighting in the 9th round after he got hurt, he was not going to win rounds 9 through 12. Froch had taken over the fight by that stage, and he was by far the stronger guy.

Groves was fighting on fumes basically. What was disappointing after that fight was how Groves changed his fighting style entirely for the rematch with Froch Instead of Groves being confident and coming out fast looking to take Froch’s head off from the start, Groves ran around the ring, boxing and just trying to survive. In the 8th, Groves suddenly went back to his old slugging style and he was having great success against Froch. However, Groves then made a STUPID mistake by backing up against the ropes, where he was quickly knocked out by a right hand from Froch.

I still can’t believe what a dumb mistake Groves made by going to the ropes. It’s not as if there wasn’t plenty of evidence to show that you don’t want to back up against the ropes against a puncher like Froch. We had seen what Froch did to Lucian Bute when he fought against the ropes in the 5th. Groves obviously didn’t learn from that fight.

In preparing for Froch, the basic ideas for training should have started with the idea that you don’t want to ever back up against the ropes. Groves either didn’t think about that when studying Froch’s past fights or he thought he could get away with it. Whatever the case, Groves blew it in a major way and it cost him the fight. I mean, I don’t think Groves was going to win anyway, but he would have had a better chance if he hadn’t made the dumb mistake of fighting off the ropes. Groves had given away the first 7 rounds by boxing Froch instead of taking the fight to him. If I was training Groves, I would have had him going right into the teeth of Froch’s offense from the 1st round until the bitter end. At least Groves would have had a chance at winning.

I think Froch is right. I don’t think we’re ever going to see the old Groves from 2013. He was younger then, confident, and he fought better overall than he does now. That was when Groves was with trainer Adam Booth, who had a lot of great ideas for how he should fight. Booth and Groves were a good team. It’s too bad Groves left him because I think he’d be a better fighter today if he still had him guiding him.

YouTube video