Did Eubank Jr Retire Groves & Degale?

Groves has been on the downward slide for literally years. The 2 Froch fights were his peak and he's looked visibly shot on the scales for the past 4 years.

He still had his skill and power but the vulnerability was also there more than ever. By the time he fought Jr he probably only had one or two big fights left in the tank and was then brutally exposed by Smith. I'm not saying Smith is a better fighter than George, I'd actually back prime 2013/14 George over Smith but it was too late in the day for George to be fighting a 6 feet 3 inch SMW with severe finishing skills.

So in short, Eubank probably stretched Groves physically a bit. But nothing more. I watched that fight in person at the Manchester Arena and Jr was terrible.

 

I don't dislike Jr by the way. There's things I admire about him. Confident, focussed, he really lives the life too. But there's no way he beats a powerful rangy boxer who's a clear weight class above him. IN fact probably 2 weight classes because Groves was more like a Lightheavyweight and Jr an average-sized middleweight.

Jr is in the wrong game fighting these guys. He needs to fight brawlers his own size to shine.

 

eubank cant even retire himself

 

Lol, no, not at all. Most knew DeGale was done before that fight. People actually said it about Groves too, although he wasn't anywhere near the state DeGale was. Groves looked absolutely fine against Smith, Smith just boxed excellently.

 

True for Degale. Groves was never the same after Froch 1

 

if i were to pick boxers out of the ones mentioned above, i'd probably put eubank as number 1 for the guys i wouldn't want to face in a brawl style match up/

he lost to groves, he had the wrong tactics, everyone could see that. He didnt getting 'beaten' up though.
the exact same for the saunders fight, wrong tactics.
This comes down to his own selfish problems with no real trainer, direction or game plan.

in a fire fight i pick eubank over them, in an overall fight based on all strategies, i dont.

 

No doubt Eubank is physically robust and perhaps the most durable of the 3 - but as Bellew said after the Groves fight, it's called "Boxing", not "Fighting".

My pal and I went to Groves-Eubank live at the Arena in Manchester, and on the train down we sat amongst 2 separate groups of lads (and girls). My pal and I were the only ones int the carriage who thought … no … Knew ... Groves was going to win. A huge number of casuals betting had skewed the odds in Jr's favour, but we put a substantial bet on Groves and cleaned up. And the fight (whilst disappointing as a raw spectacle) went exactly as predicted. Groves cruised it, and even with one working arm landed two crushing shots in Round 12.

Jr displayed all the worst aspects of his game. No fundamentals, no composure, poor accuracy, poor attempts to periodically bum rush in lieu of actually setting something up. It was a horrible performance from him. I'd give Groves 6/10 for it and Jr 2/10 - 2 points merely for still being there at the end. But he was hurt a couple of times too, including the last round.

Hopefully he's learned because (perhaps in spite of myself), I still quite like him.

 

if degale and groves had been fighting eubank type opponents all their life, they'd be undefeated and still active.

if eubank had been facing groves or degale types he'd have retired before making a double figure resume with 10 losses.

 

Smith retired Groves and DeGale was a spent force well before he fought CEJ

 

fair play. i'd tend to agree.
i favoured eubank but i agree, no gameplan