Opinion on the Froch v Groves fight?

Shouldnt come as a surprise. Froch got a gift against Dirrell and knew it. He's always harping about wanting people to fight at home and how nobody can beat him at home. Well, gee, I wonder why. If I were a potential Froch opponent I wouldnt face him anywhere near Britain.

 

I thought he ended up showing his experience as he took a whipping early on and slowly assumed some control, even if he was still losing the rounds.

You could see Groves losing ground, and at the end, he was tired and Froch started landing telling punches. Froch waited patiently while taking a beating for his turn, probably hoping (correctly) that at some point, Groves would slow down and be hittable.

The stoppage was a bit premature, but Groves was DONE. If the ref let it go, he would have surely been knocked out.

Froch is a ****y *****, but he did show real patience and composure, especially in the face of that terrible knockdown. He took his man into deep waters, then drowned him...

I read all these opinions that Groves was robbed and that he won every round, blah blah blah... How many fights have ended like this? How many fighters have been losing badly on the cards when they turned it around and won by stoppage?

The fact is Groves didn't pace himself, got sloppy and slowed, and the guy with more experience took advantage and drowned him.

 

Tbh I don't care who wins, cos either way England ends up with a world champ be it from London, or Nottingham. But that first round was almost as bad as the Benn / McClellan fight, where the ref gave Froch all the time he could before allowing the action to resume.

There was no way he was gonna let Groves steam in and finish the job. He would have gone to Froch's corner, got the water bottle and doused him with it if need be.

From Froch going down, until the restarting of the action was a fvcking lot more than 8 seconds.

 

Fifty percent of Froch's title fights have been abroad, he never had an English judge or ref in any of them until he got a Uk judge in the Johnson fight . Johnson had a US one and the other was Japanese.The Groves fight was stopped prematurely imo, but to say Froch gets favours at home is incorrect.

 

Yeah, Hes fought five title fights away from home, losing two and winning three (2 of which came against middleweights). Of the other six title fights hes had at home two were robberies. See how quickly his stats change in his favor when he gets his home cooking? He basically admits he gets favors at home when he screams for everyone to fight him there especially after one sided losses like the one he had to Ward or his loss to Kessler. Nobody disputed those decisions and nobody disputed that Froch was cleanly defeated, and nobody claimed that anything shady happened yet for some reason he demands that those guys come and meet him at home? When a guy loses like that and then demands that he gets a rematch on his home turf (as if he was the winner) that tells me something. Especially in light of two fights in which he was essentially the house fighter and got the decision that should have gone the other way. And lets be clear, it wasnt just the stoppage that was bad. He was getting beaten from the word go and yet somehow was one point away from victory on the scorecards. Dont tell me there wasnt major favoritism going on there.

 

Groves wasn't allowing Froch to get in to the fight, too quick and too explosive for Carl's style. Grove's bad stamina and deviation in to all out brawl territory are what allowed Froch in to the fight.

Horrendously corrupt referee, promoters and judges are what this fight will be remembered for unfortunately.

 

Was the first Kessler v Froch fight that one sided? I don't think so. Could have went either way.

The scorring was way off in the groves fight. All champs seem to get gifts but rarely are they disgracful. Champions just get the edge in close fights. Nobody should want to see titles change hands over a fight that could go either way. This has always been the unwritten rule. has always went on world wide. Its not exclusive to froch at home.

 

The Dirrell fight could have gone either way.
No English officials were involved in this fight.
Froch didn't demand the fights on his home turf, he wanted them there because that's where the ££££ was.
He had gone to Denmark to fight Kessler ,isnt it fair that he should have the rematch in the UK?
He fought
Taylor in the US. Abraham in Finland,Johnson in the US.

Neither of the judges that had the Groves fight close were from the UK.
The other Star referee Dave Parris is from London, same as Groves.
He had it clearly for Groves at the time of the stoppage
I gave Froch 2 rounds at the most, incompetence in officials is not the same as corruption.
Paddy Fitzpatrick, in Groves corner scored it the same .
Fitzpatrick objected to the referee on the grounds he was known to stop fights prematurely and was told he could be replaced , but that he would then be a judge.

All judges had Groves ahead.


Parris's scoring was the nearest to reality if you have a gripe about the scoring dont blame the UK, blame the American female judge Waleska Roldan officiating in her first World title fight her score card was outrageous ,and the Itallian judge who also was watching a different fight.

Then blame the WBC that employs these incompetent officials.

Froch has only lost two fights, not three.One to Ward who neither he or anyone else can beat at the weight ,and a close, but just loss to Kessler in Denmark.

Both Groves and Froch are Brits , it doesnt matter which one wins.

I was rooting for Groves and expect him to beat Froch next time.
Froch is the Champion why shouldnt he fight at home from time to time? If challengers dont want to come to the Uk to fight him for the title with neutral officials, they can't want it that much. As for bad decisions The US has a pretty long history of those dont you think?

 

It was the judges scorecards that shocked me! I should not be at all suprised as this now seems to be the norm over here in the UK. We always expected to get shafted abroad but here it used to be a level playing field, But now it's happening every other fight, either the ref jumps in after they've touched gloves or the 3 well fed & looked after judges make sure the man who pays the money ai'nt pissed off.

Groves was buzzed for sure & seemed to be slowly coming apart...but, this is a world title fight, it's a violent sport, it's the only sport/occupation where you can legally beat another man to death, we all know what it's about, it's gladitorial, no one is in any doubt to the dangers, but by constantly spouting out the line that that it's best to stop a fight one punch to early rather than late is wearing a bit thin as justification to whats been going on here in the UK in recent years. As I said, We all know the dangers, but Groves should have been allowed to carry on and see if he weathered the storm, took a knee or if decked a count of nine, his corner are there for him, that's when the ref would/should appraise the situation, it's not as if Groves was reeling along the ropes defenceless like a friday night drunk & Froch was not exactly sprightly on his feet, he was also near to being done. I dunno? It's getting worse over here, this is straight after the Burns/Beltran travesty as well, another Eddie Hearn promotion....easy 6-2 on the cards for me, anything else def makes you question????

 

The whole fight stunk Howard foster should be fired so should the judges Hearn paid for this to be a froch friendly afair

 

The stoppage was questionable but hardly an out and out controversy such as Dokes-Weaver I.

In my opinion,it was a 50-50 chance whether Groves could have carried on. Just one of those unlucky calls. A rematch is necessary,though. Groves put on a blinding performance and deserves another shot.

 

That's a much more balanced view .:good

 

I thought the stoppage looked very premature from the outside but I am not sure because the referee is very close and he sees things we do not see. So maybe he felt Groves was finished. From the outside it didn't look like that but who knows.

As for the fight: I didn't score it but I thought Groves won most of the rounds, his speed was too fast for Froch. Froch always had troubles with fast fighters - I remember I scored Froch vs Dirrell 9 rounds to 3 for Dirrell. Andre Ward was another fighter who was too fast. On the other side, I had Froch beating Kessler in their first fight by 2 points, so I felt he should have gotten that decision.
The thing with Groves is that he got greedy. He felt he is the faster boxer and the better boxer as well and then he wanted to embarrass Froch and started showboating/trading with him. He was leaning on the ropes with his hands down and let Froch throw combinations Ali/Dokes style. In that moment I felt he is doing something wrong now.
Groves is a very good boxer, I have watched quite a few fights of him in the past and even though I scored the Groves-DeGale fight for DeGale by 1 point, he still looked very good in it and I can see how someone would score it for Groves.