Seen a variety of opinions since Groves’ retirement announcement. Whilst most seem to be in agreement that his retirement at this stage was a good decision, I’ve heard opinions such as that George was an underachiever who was a tad unlucky on his career, and others such as that he was fortunate to win a world title with his suspect stamina, chin, and leaky defence. Which one do you think is closer to the truth, or do you think it’s somewhere in the middle?
Had a good career, the Froch fights made him financially but took a bit away from him as a fighter.If you told Groves at the start of his career he would achieve what he has I think he would be happy.
I think under, in the sense he had the ability to do more. I'm not sure he would have beaten everyone and reigned supreme but I think some bad luck behind the scenes hindered him.
With hindsight, he achieved what you would expect him to achieve, all things considered. He should have achieved more with his ability, but he achieved more than what you would expect for someone with his chin and stanima.
Over achiever. World champion and 2-0 against Degale. One of my favourite fighters in interview for sure.
Am I right in saying GG only got dropped 3 times? Froch, Jack & Callum Smith. One of those being a bodyshot, all World Champions. Kenny Miller had him going but I don't remember if he dropped him or not. That dosent equate to someone with a bad chin.
His chin wasn’t that bad...got hit with a shot that would iron out most by Froch and still got up...wasn’t iron but he wasn’t Amir Khan. I’d say underachieved. With a bit more luck could’ve unified...unlucky not to get the nod vs Jack and could’ve won the first Froch fight...combine that with the issues behind the scenes and he could’ve achieved more. Injury was also bad luck...he’s only 30... He did seem to lose something post Froch...a bit of that explosiveness...looked much bigger at the weight in his more recent fights so perhaps it was weight struggles. I don’t think we ever saw the Groves of Froch I with the intelligence and composure in his more recent fights. Had we then he’d have achieved more imo.
Didn't Kenny Anderson drop him before George stopped him? Fight seems forever ago now that I can't 100% recall for sure... edit: saw you mentioned Kenny haha, the Miller threw me off.
Groves certainly didn't have a bad chin. For me, it was slightly lacking at the very top level. He had good defensive skills so he could protect it, and, to be fair to him, I think his lack of a top class tank would weaken his chin as the rounds progressed. I just feel that against the very top level fighters, his chin, and stanima, would come into question.
From a technical perspective yes but you would have to argue Froch's defense was better taking into consideration the amount of times each fighter was stopped or dropped. Groves jab was also good but underutilized.
I feel Groves improved skillwise after his bout with Froch, Carl was always easy to hit, Groves had Eubank chasing shadows.