By Niall Doran
A look ahead to the fascinating all British boxing world title showdown – Carl Froch vs George Groves, scheduled for late 2013
It was announced yesterday in a joint interview live on Sky that WBA and IBF super middleweight Champion Carl Froch will put his titles on the line against undefeated mandatory challenger George Groves at a venue and date to be named. However rumours are that November 23rd is a likely date according to a brief mention by Froch yesterday.
This delightful and constant trend we seem to be getting of fights been made that fans genuinely want to see this year is very refreshing indeed. Boxing as a whole this year in all parts of the world is really seeing a bit of a comeback in terms of great fights getting made consistently. I wonder is this a little bit of a reaction from boxing promoters to the amazing growth in recent years by rival combat sports like mixed martial arts, primarily spear headed by the UFC. Whatever the reason is is, I’m happy.
This fight between Froch and Groves is the first clash between two world class super middleweights in Britain since perhaps going all the way to back to the Benn, Eubank, Watson and Collins era. This fight looks to be the classic young lion vs the old lion. But is that really fair to even call Froch an old lion? The man seems to be a genetic freak in terms of his impressive fitness, and in recent years if anything he has shown signs of improvement rather than deterioration.
After watching their debate yesterday on Sky I almost felt like George Groves looked a little nervous, which is slightly outside the norm for a young man who is always so cool, calm and collected. Maybe this is very understandable though, after all he is stepping into the ring for the first time with genuine world class opposition in Carl Froch. In boxing sometimes I just get a feeling for when one guy has a mental edge over another, and after watching the 25 minute interview on Sky yesterday, I certainly felt that Froch had the edge.
In terms of boxing styles Froch really only fights one way most of the time, which is coming forward and throwing big shots, in an all action fan friendly style that everyone has come to love. However on occasion (and notably against Arthur Abraham) he can stick to a boxing gameplan and utilize what has become an absolute ramrod of a jab. Groves on the other hand was known to be a man earlier in his career who was a little caught between styles. At times he liked to brawl but in more of his recent fights he usually sticks to strict instruction and boxes to a clever game plan delivered by his mentor and famed boxing tactician Adam Booth.
I think everyone will be asking themselves will Groves box Froch like he did against James De Gale? Will he box on the back foot and keep out of harms way and try to take Froch on points? Arguably that would be the most sensible thing to do, but as Froch said on Sky yesterday this is a box office event and the fans deserve more than that. Either way Groves chooses to box I really cant see him beating Froch. I think Froch’s sheer power and ferocity simply will be too much for Groves at this point in his career and I’d expect Froch to do a job on him inside the distance to be honest. Having said that Groves did surprise a lot of people when he beat De Gale and since then has shown excellent improvements as a fighter, and arguably will be the hungrier of the two.
Two box office events for fight fans in Britain and Ireland in the space of two months this year with Haye vs Fury and Froch vs Groves, will ensure that we the fans will be the real winners. Bring on the new boxing season!
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