Bad stoppage, but Groves would have been stopped

Be interesting to see if another Hearn fighter, Darren Barker, gets favourable treatment in two weeks time.
Will there be extra scrutiny of the judges after this weekends farcical scoring???

 

As a spectator it looked like Groves made two fatal errors that cost him the fight. Number one was letting Froch off the hook when he was out in round 1, although he didn’t get much time to finish him. Number two was Groves mistake of brawling with Froch in the later rounds and completely abandoning his fight plan. The brawling I believe would have lead to a TKO even if the ref didn’t stop it early. I think Froch won this fight legit but I am convinced Groves would win a rematch because if it wasn’t for getting sucked into the brawling he would have won. I guess there is also the question of his stamina but you would think if he paced him self better next time out its possible he could finish strong enough to keep Froch away to a safe points win. He did the macho stuff this time, he should be more sensible in the rematch, much like Holyfield v Bowe 2

Regarding Froch, I thought he looked spooked in the ring before the fight. He looked pretty bloody nervous to me. Maybe he realised he was the one under pressure to annihilate Grove’s and if he didn’t do that he would be considered a failure. Groves in contrast looked very confident, his games worked a treat. Froch is a great champion, I believe this because he shouldn’t have won the fight. Great fighters manage to win when they shouldn’t. I don’t think he was shot either, I believe he was pretty much knocked out in round 1 and it took him most of the fight to recover. How he got up from that punch is unimaginable, but he did and deserves full credit for coming back to win, which I think he would have, only because Groves Gave it away by being a bit silly.

So Groves lost this fight in my opinion, he abandoned his fight plan and got into a macho war with Froch that became his undoing. But I believe Groves wins the rematch. I wonder if Froch will go there though, I wouldn’t say he would duck Groves but I think he will justify a way of going another route. I do think Froch is a great champion but as a person he can be a bit of an arse, it wouldn’t surprise me if he froze George out.

 

I do however agree with your statement you have said. It is clear Froch was getting it back together and he would of stopped groves, Froch was starting to come back. I had groves up on points. But if it had carried on no doub t he would of stopped groves.

I was fuming but a rematch surley must happen

 

Both fighters were dirty so I have no problem with the ref not deducting Froch points. Groves was continually using his head and rabbit punched Froch a couple of times. Froch using his forearm and hitting on the break

 

The best post I've read on this whole subject!

 

I bet on Groves to win, and this is the first time I have seen the fight; in my opinion it was a premature stoppage. It's not the worst I have seen, but it was panicky by the referee. When you think of fights that have been allowed to continue it's quite laughable.

 

Anyone who truly thinks Groves was about to be stopped has absolutely no idea about boxing.

 

Or like Carl and McCrackpot, who deep down know they've got away with one and therefore voiciferously backing a flakey decision.

 

I only gave Froch round 5 and round 8 and I felt that I was being generous in giving him the 8th. I can't see an argument for him winning any other rounds and the ones he did were very close.

With this in mind, to go from being consistently outworked and beaten to a stoppage like this when Groves was still swinging is ridiculous. He was pushed off balance and stumbled into Foster. It almost seems like Foster accidentally caught him under his arm and as a split decision of pure confusion decided to wave the fight off whilst not being sure what had just happened due to being clumsily in the way.

 

Yep, and now Froch is talking about fighting Ward again, a fight he surely knows he cannot win, but presents the opportunity to get get feather dustered to defeat without any real damage. I think that such a fight would be a display of cowardice, and I'd be thrilled to see Ward win by stoppage. I'd have so much more respect for Carl if he calls it a day in the event that he can't bring himself to face up to Groves again.

 

So if Froch chased and bull-rushed Groves to the ropes again, which he looked like doing after the previous 30 seconds, then landed some more punches on the ropes for 10 more seconds, there wouldn't have been a case to stop it?

 

One day Groves will thanks Howard Foster for that, Froch couldn't land anything of any note for the first 7 and Groves was too fast but he was slowing, no doubt about that, and Froch was landing and getting on top. Groves was in trouble and Froch was coming on strong. He'd done his best work and Froch was still there and getting stronger.

Groves should get back in the gym very soon, work on stamina and educate himself some more on winning a boxing match and not a fight. As we've seen time and time again Froch is not the man the fight with and this assured us all of this once again.