Fair play to Smith, the finish was very good. Groves need a proper rest. Had loads of fights recently plus the injury to overcame. He should take off a good 6 months without thinking about boxing, and then reassess, and see how he feels.
It was an entertaining fight and an interesting mesh of styles. Groves did well from the outside with his jab, despite being the much shorter man, exposing Smith's lack of head movement. But he struggled to open up like we are used to seeing without being countered which is what we saw when he was stopped. Smith boxed a very composed fight which belied his lack of experience in comparison to Groves. His size alone is such a big weapon and he fights tall and doesn't come down to his opponent like some tall fighters do. His punch technique is very good and he's hard to read because of that with the lead right hands and counter left hooks being especially effective. I wasn't sure who was going to win coming into the fight. Wasn't sure how much Groves had left, he looked great vs the smaller Eubank but against Smith he was recovering from an injury and up against a very difficult style as Groves likes to draw a lead and counter but up against a taller guy who countered him he was never really comfortable. Smith will be a formidable opponent for anyone at super middle with his height and reach I can't see anyone beating him in the current weak division.
Seemed like something was up with groves. He tried getting after frock damn near drilled him into the canvas. Seemed like he made a calculated decision to prolong his career maybe due to an existing problem. But he was getting caught and hurt at the end of the day. I think groves is smart enough to retire at the right time. His chin clearly isn’t great but a lot of decent fighters had that issue, doesn’t mean groves isn’t a class fighter. I agree that he was sloppy but should have won the fight really, I don’t rate smith that highly.
Anything North of Watford is considered the North by most southerners, so I think Northerners can claim Froch.
indeed, i didnt want to write the cliche but its no less true. Whereas a REAL northerner thinks "Tch Liverpool? T'In midlands!"