With me previously having written about the prospect of Carl ‘The Cobra’ Froch and fellow Brit ‘Saint’ George Groves squaring off, I felt that it was necessary to assess the fight now that it is officially going to take place.
It has been announced that the two super-middleweights are to face each other later this year with both a date and venue to be confirmed at a later date. This is an interesting one for promoter Eddie Hearn and his company Matchroom Sport as both fighters are part of the same stable.
This will surely prove to be a bit of an uncomfortable situation for Hearn with it being widely known of his great friendship with Froch and yet he promotes his opponent as well. Despite this, there is no doubt that Hearn will conduct himself professionally and will be relishing the match-up.
Froch aged 36 comes into the fight with a record of 31 wins and 2 losses and will have his IBF and WBA belts on the line. Froch is one of the elite of the sport having fought the likes of Jean Pascal, Jermain Taylor, Andre Direll, Mikkel Kessler twice, Arthur Abraham, Glen Johnson, Andre Ward, and Lucien Bute in recent years.
To have fought such an incredible list of top-quality opponents is just unheard of in boxing today, where records are often padded out to look more impressive than they actually are. This is not the case with The Cobra, who has fought the best out there time after time. He is a real warrior of a fighter.
Carl and his long-term trainer Robert McCracken are a lethal combination that combine Carl’s natural power, determination, and incredible chin with McCracken’s tactical prowess to devastating effect. McCracken has enhanced his reputation over the last year following his involvement with the GB Olympic Boxing Team.
At last year’s Olympics, the success of the GB team was remarkable with the likes of Anthony Joshua, Luke Campbell, Anthony Ogogo and Nicola Adams all winning medals. McCracken was a large part of this success and has been a great influence on Carl over the years.
In contrast, George Groves aged 25, is vastly less experienced than Froch but has all the potential to be a world champion.
Groves will come into the fight with a record of 19 wins including 15 ko’s including a victory over long-term rival James Degale.
Groves will come into the fight as a massive underdog but really believes he has what it takes to win. He is quick, technically very good and has decent power in his shots. One of Groves’s biggest advantages may be the man in his corner, Adam Booth.
Booth, who has trained David Haye for a long time now, has built up a reputation for being very tactically astute and if anyone can mastermind a victory for Groves over Froch it would be Booth. An example of Booth’s tactical prowess is shown through Haye’s victory over the much larger Valuev and Groves victory over Degale. Both were very technical fights in which both boxers executed the game-plan to perfection.
There is an added intensity to this battle as Groves helped Froch’s last opponent Kessler prepare to fight Froch through sparring. This seemed to really irritate Froch, who stated that he would never have aided a foreign fighter prepare to fight a fellow Brit in such a big match-up.
Froch has a right in some ways to be annoyed by this but it is also very understandable why Groves did spar with Kessler. Kessler is a great fighter and to get the opportunity to test your skills with such a fighter is a rare opportunity. Such sparring can improve a fighter greatly and turning down such a chance would be very difficult. At the end of the day, you have to look after yourself in this sport and that is all the Groves was doing.
This added intensity is making for a really good prospect of a fight with a really hungry young fighter in Groves determined to make a big name for himself by beating Froch and becoming a world champion. Froch will also be determined to show just why he is a unified world champion and will know that he can’t afford a slip-up if he is to face the likes of Andre Ward soon.
For my money I think that this fight has come too early for Groves. I think that Groves is very talented and can be a world champion but Froch is really on top of his game at the moment and is a dangerous fighter.
For me I think Groves should have targeted WBO champion Robert Stieglitz, who no offence to him is not on the same level as the other champions in the super-middleweight division. A fight with Stieglitz would still be a difficult one for Groves but one which he would be much more likely to come through successfully.
I see Froch being too much for Groves at this point in his career and I think it will last a maximum of 6 rounds before Groves is overpowered.
Despite this I am still really looking forward to this match-up as there is a real rivalry building and you never know in this sport an upset could happen. Froch v Groves the old warrior v the young contender!
