That was a fight! Super Middleweight Champion Carl Froch is Amazing. Rematch?
By Robert Brizel, Head RCM Boxing Correspondent
Carl Froch is a super middleweight world championship fighter who is greater than the sum of his parts. He’s got some power. For Froch, the key to victory is mostly grit and determination. It’s not speed, it’s not a great jab, and it’s not defense. It’s grit, his greatest asset. That’s why you cannot quite describe what ability that makes Froch so great. Carl knew he was behind against George Groves, and look at what he was doing. He battered Groves into submission. You knew Froch was going to knock him out, or the kid was going to quit eventually. It’s a shame for George Groves. It’s just Groves started turning away near the end of the bout. Groves was game, and his face was black and blue. That was a fight!
Carl Froch is not involved in boring fights. I would love to see Carl Froch against Bernard Hopkins, because Hopkins would have to fight it out with Froch. Coming off the Kessler fight, people were talking about Froch’s jab. Against Grove his jab wasn’t working, so Froch turning caveman, which means fighting a trench warfare raw and foul fighter.
Looking at the ninth round again, there wasn’t gonna be another moment where George Groves was gonna be allowed to breathe again. It turned into Carl Froch’s fight. Groves came in to win the fight. He said he was going to come in and knock Froch out. At the beginning of the fight, he really tried. Groves threw a vicious right hand punch to the head in the first round which knocked Froch down. That’s vicious warfare, the way the way British boxing fans light to see it, duel to the death, and even the bookies got their money’s worth in Manchester this past weekend.
His 12 round victories over Glen Johnson and James DeGale notwithstanding, Groves is still in my view still a rough tough eight round fighter who just wasn’t ready for a world class level12 round trench warfare fight with thenitty gritty warrior Carl Froch. On paper this was actually a phenomenal matchup, and it was exciting while it lasted, much better than anybody could have predicted. Groves and Froch would have made a great bare knuckles bout a century ago.
Froch jumped on Groves from the start. Froch’s key understanding washe knew Groves could outbox him for a while, but not at a 12 round distance. Lucien Bute didn’t come in the ring throwing thunder in round one, so you knew after the first round he wasn’t going to last very long as a technical bout, an approach not well suited for Froch’s bang bang and boom style. Groves went for broke from the opening bell, and almost got Froch out of there, but almost doesn’t count. From then on it was on Froch to overpower the lad in the stretch run of a long and brutal slugfest. Like Rocky Marciano, Froch is crude yet effective. Marciano outpointed Ezzard Charles in their first matchup, much like Froch outpointed Kessler in their second matchup. Like Marciano, Froch is simple a great all-around banger who just keeps brutally power punching on his opponent till he gets them out of there.
Boxing is a particularly brutal sport, which is why the British like it so much. Blood and bruises do not tell enough of the story of the war between Carl Froch and George Groves. Referee Howard Foster may have stopped the bout a bit prematurely at 1:33 of round nine to give Froch the win, as Groves was ahead on points on all three scorecards after eight rounds. Then again, Vitaly Klitschko was ahead on points against Lennox Lewis when Lewis stopped him. Groves protested the stoppage, which put an end to the hellish chaos.
Groves has now demanded a rematch in Spring 2014. Carl Froch is willing to grant it. Such a rematch will be less about the IBF and WBA Super Middleweight world titles at stake, more about who will win the latest battle Britain. My prediction is Groves will not be standing the second time when the rematch ends. Promoter Eddie Hearn should make them fight again and settle the argument about who the better boxer is. They should call Froch versus Groves II ‘Madness in Manchester’. Why not? The fans want it? Do it.
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