First of all I am in no way saying that is why he lost the fight, the way froch came in he would have beaten groves anyway, just think it's an interesting point of discussion. looking back on it with all these new sponsorship deals and event appearances it seem like groves bought into his new celebrity status. He sounded in the build up like he was so sure it was gonna be an easy night, while on the other hand we didn't hear anything from froch in the build up other than the mandatory press conferences etc. he was obviously off training hard. Seems like they swapped each others mind sets from the first fight.
Doubt it. Groves obviously wanted revenge for the 1st fight and the world title he has probably been dreaming about his whole life. Groves looked in great shape. His appearance of over-confidence in the build-up was just a front (though he may have been confident), all boxers try to seem as confident as possible, Groves is just better at it than some. His acting overly confident was an attempt to make Carl feel uneasy and unsure. If Groves had let himself look anything other than super-confident it would have given Froch even more encouragement.
He got complacent in the fight. He sat there after catching a hook. I don't think he was complacent in his training but who knows. It was a supprisingly well thrown shot from Froch that maybe george thought he wasn't capable of.
Anyone who knows George will tell you that is bull. He is an extremely confident guy who has his nerves firmly in check!!!
No, Groves was in top shape... he said so himself and you could see it by looking at him. Froch trained 5 days a week then had the weekend off, Groves similarly had 5 days of training and 2 rest days - in those rest days and after his training, he did the promotional side of things. I don't think he knew it was going to be an easy night, we seen that for ourselves with his game plan as he made sure to have fuel left in the tank for the later rounds as he knew Froch comes on strong, but he got caught with a great right hand. He did however get complacent to allow fight to end like it did. He was winning that 8th round, went back towards the ropes (where Froch is renown for being dangerous), took the bait with the feint, opened up his body to much when throwing his hook and Froch's right hand landed on the button.
No No No Groves got his tactics completely wrong he should've fought in the same manor as the first fight he was throwing big bombs from the off ,in the rematch he as far to cautious that coast him the fight.
Yeah agree he should have been throwing heavy shots, taking the centre of the ring etc as he did in the first but he even said himself he got to greedy with his shots in that fight. Froch comes on strong down the stretch in fights and is practically made out of granite, he didn't stop him first time round so had he been greedy with his shots once more but didn't put Froch away, you can easily argue he'd be ****ed for the back end of the fight.
I never said he was not confident and I never said he does not have his nerves in check. I am saying that he was not over-confident to the point of complacency. IMO in the build up to fights, although he is confident, he exaggerates or purposely displays his confidence as do all fighters. I have edited the 1st post to more accurately say what I mean
Adam Booth said Groves was always one to get complacent, after the fight. Also, as Froch said, Groves is a giver not a receiver and he hit Pascal and Kessler with shots just as strong as the finisher, but they knew how to take them.
I think Groves to over confident, I am sure he trained really hard and well, but i think from the last fight he thought he was going to win quite easily.
But he did say that he did hit the likes of Kessler and Pascal with strong shots like he hit Groves, but the one that hit Groves was right on the sweet spot. Froch couldn't have landed that shot anymore on the light switch.
To be honest going in...i thought that game plan wouldn't have been bad, i wouldn't have went with it, but i wouldn't have criticised it going in...confident that groves could have out-boxed carl. It turned out that carl was better at boxing that a lot of people have gave him credit for...plus he was in very good shape for it with a solid game-plan. it wasn't that it was such a terrible game plan...it just never worked out. If you lose...it's always going to be the game plan whatever plan they went with. My only real problem with how groves went in the ring was...and i think he worked very hard in training...but his lack of explosiveness...like he had in the first fight. He just seemed a good bit less explosive. Not sure if anyone else thought that?? Still not sure it was the lack of explosiveness or something froch was doing that they worked on that off-set george from throwing as explosively?? Personally i think the new s & c coach played a part in it all...but i could be wrong. Anyone pick up on what carl was doing to offset it...or was the lack of explosiveness all in my mind.
One thing I noticed when watching the fight was that froch was getting out of range a lot faster whenever groves went to throw the right hand, maybe making it look like groves was less explosive. The first few rounds groves threw it a few times and fell short. Think McCracken and froch studied the tapes and looked for the signs that it was coming, possibly worked on frochs footwork aswell, looked a lot better 2nd time around.
Cheers pal. Only seen the fight the once going to give it a second viewing...i think your right...i got the feeling there was something froch was doing to counteract more than george wasn't as explosive...just made it look that way.
I think George convinced himself he had Froch beat in every department, which wasn't really true, so he made the mistake of believing his own hype. now its over we see that its fairly likely he was going to be finished in the first fight, George convinced himself he would have come back and won, personally I think he was more hurt than he let on. I think the hype for the fight effected him and made him a bit over confident. He still likely would have lost whatever the case but he was a bit smart for his own good, he had the nerve to believe he could out last Froch and try some cute things with the left hook. Overconfidence. the ref stopping that first fight basically lengthened the Froch/Groves saga longer than it needed to be. At the end of the day if it went on longer the first fight would have ended in Carl's favour imo. It made for a great rematch event though, but made Groves appear more competitive that he really was. He simply isn't ready for Froch yet, this would have been answered in the first fight. Groves has a lot of great ingredients but something is missing to beat a guy like Froch, an all timer. It was a good effort though and he has balls going for this fight, I wish more fighters showed that kind of willingness to fight the best.