The Face of British Boxing – Froch Out, Barker In?

barker63By Michael Byrne: Carl Froch’s legacy is in tatters. It’s not even George Groves’s fault: it’s his own. He displayed arrogance in trying to undermine Groves. He displayed delusion in insisting that the referee made the right call, even when the entire stadium was booing him in the post-fight interview.

His limited boxing ability was exposed, and it became clear that he is a boxer who relies too heavily upon a granite chin and big power carried in wild swings. One could also argue that these poor qualities were already apparent in his game. He constantly talks about his legacy, and yes he has fought everyone around, but he has never been particularly humble about his achievements or respectful to his opponents. He has never outright admitted that ward beat him fairly because Ward is simply better than him. So Froch has lost a lot of popularity, and he doesn’t seem to be searching in the right places to try and regain it.

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Groves: Froch is scared of me because I hurt him

groves67367By Scott Gilfoid: George Groves expects IBF/WBA super middleweight champion Carl Froch to avoid a rematch with him because he hurt Froch and gave him a concussive beating last Saturday night. Groves feels that Froch doesn’t want to experience the same punishment a second time in a fight with him, and risk having the referee not stop the fight like he prematurely did in their fight. Groves thinks Froch is shaking in his boots at the thought of having to fight him a second time.

Groves said to Sky Sports “I’m not going to standstill with my career for Carl Froch, for him to lay low and avoid me. Right now, I feel he’s scared of me because I hurt him badly. He’s not happy to fight me and be hurt massively in a concussive manner. He’s scared. But if he doesn’t, he’ll lose a lot of fans.”

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Should Froch gives Groves a rematch?

froch7343By Thomas Cowan: On Saturday night, one of the biggest fights in history to take place on British shores ended in controversy and anger. Carl Froch won the fight and kept his belts and George Groves lost his unbeaten record, but gained a lot of fans in the process. The way in which the fight was stopped led to Groves feeling “gutted and angry”, with many British boxing fans feeling robbed of a satisfying end to a great fight.

To back up a bit, after promising to stand in the centre of the ring with Froch at the pre-fight press conference, the cocky young pretender Groves was as good as his words, heavily dropping the normally iron-chinned Froch in the first round. Froch has been dropped by Jermain Taylor and hurt by Mikkel Kessler but a huge right hand from Groves had him staggering around like a drunk in a way that has never been seen.

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Groves can take pride with performance against Froch

groves783By Robbie Bannatyne: In the build-up to the Super Middleweight grudge match between Carl Froch and George Groves, valid for the formers WBA and IBF 168lb world titles, many billed the contest as David versus Goliath type battle. Personally, I didn’t feel Groves was quite as over-matched. But I fancied a Froch win so much I rushed from the pub to the nearest betting shop to put a note on the Nottingham native winning by a 10th round knockout, at thoroughly decent odds of 14-1, just before the fight started.

You can deduce from my pre-fight prediction then that I, like many others, was totally surprised that Groves pre-fight rhetoric- that he would assume his position in the centre of the ring and force Froch onto the back foot, from the 1st bell- translated into reality on the night.

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Khan: Froch should retire

froch5629By Scott Gilfoid: Amir Khan thinks IBF/WBA super middleweight champion Carl Froch (32-2, 22 KO’s) should retire from boxing following his controversial 9th round TKO win last Saturday night against challenger George Groves (19-1, 15 KO’s) in Manchester, UK. Khan thinks Froch took a great deal of punishment in that fight and was dominated for 8 rounds before getting the tainted stoppage in the 9th when the referee Howard John Foster jumped in between the two fighters during an exchange and put a headlock around the still fighting Groves.

Khan said to the Daily Mail “He got a very close win against Groves because he was losing almost every round. He was losing the fight. Groves was the stronger fighter. While he is still champion, he should call it a day. The referee stopped the fight too soon. The fight would’ve have gone the distance and Groves would’ve won on points.”

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Froch-Groves: No Winner

froch673428By JVance: On the lead up to Saturday’s all-British clash between George Groves and Carl Froch, I wrote an article predicting a George Groves victory. The piece outlined that, in his fights leading up to Saturday Night, Groves had displayed the necessary attributes to capitalize on the many technical flaws and shortcomings that Froch had shown in his long and illustrious careers.

From round one it seemed that the underdog was well on his way to an emphatic victory, however the controversial circumstances in which the fight ended and the poor officiating ringside, has left a far from definitive outcome to the ‘Battle of Britain’.

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Froch: Groves had his chance but he blew it

groves763By Scott Gilfoid: IBF/WBA super middleweight champion Carl Froch (32-2, 23 KO’s) says he’s not sure whether he’ll give George Groves (19-1, 15 KO’s) a rematch now due to some of things that Groves has been saying in the media since his controversial 9th round TKO loss last Saturday night, according to Boxing News. Froch also says that there’s less of a reason for him to give Groves a rematch because most fans are changing their minds about the fight stoppage being unfair.

They now believe that it was a fair stoppage, Froch says. The only reason why Froch had been contemplating giving Groves a rematch was due to the controversy surrounding the stoppage, but now that fans see it as a fair stoppage, Froch doesn’t see it necessary to give Groves a second chance.

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A Cobra or a Saint: A Referee’s Conundrum

froch0567by Jordan Capobianco: I’m probably one stupid American to be putting myself in the middle of this mess. But as an American watching 2 British boxers, I didn’t really have a proverbial horse in the race. I haven’t seriously rooted for a boxer from the U.K. since Lennox Lewis. Of course, I had heard of Carl Froch. Everyone has. He’s been around long enough. Fought enough names. Had more than enough championship bouts. I saw him lose to Ward, I saw him return to glory by beating Kessler, Mack, and Bute. Before the Groves fight was announced, I was even telling people I thought Froch deserved a rematch with Ward. I had respect for Froch.

But I had respect for George Groves, also. I watched Groves beat every opponent he’s fought since Glen Johnson. I was impressed by his stuff. I agreed that he was one of, if not the, most promising prospects in the world.

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Who would a rematch favor, Froch or Groves?

froch-1By Daniel James: After watching another truly great domestic dust up between the British legend Carl Froch and one of the best up and coming prospects George Groves, the controversial stoppage almost  immediately had me wondering, “what about a rematch?”. Perhaps this was naive of me, seeing as how unlikely such a rematch would be.

Carl Froch in particular, still has a lot of options to consider, a mandatory defense of his IBF title against Lucian Bute in Canada, a big money fight with the Mexican Julio Cesar Chavez Jr, an opportunity to avenge his only other loss to the Olympic gold medalist Andre Ward, the power punching sensation Gennady Golovkin or even a catch weight fight with light heavy weight IBF champ Bernard Hopkins. However, if a rematch were to happen, who would be at the advantage?

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Groves: Froch was clueless for large portions of our fight

froch777By Scott Gilfoid: George Groves (19-1, 15 KO’s) believes that IBF/WBA super middleweight champion Carl Froch (32-2, 23 KO’s) fought like someone without a clue last Saturday night for long stretches in their controversial fight at the Phones 4u Arena in Manchester, UK. Groves thinks he dominated the 36-year-old Froch in every way you could think of until the referee Howard John Foster jumped in between them and prematurely stopped the fight.

Groves doesn’t know what to think of with Foster other than he made a huge blunder in stopping the bout.

Groves said to Sky Sports “I could bully him whenever I wanted to. He was clueless for large portions of the fight. Carl sat down post-fight at ringside and said ‘Let’s have a rematch.’

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