The Curious Case of George Groves

[Meathead]

Right, I should preface this by saying I actually quite like Groves and in the early days he looked like a fighter with world championships in his future, however.....

 

Is it me or is he taking steps backwards?

 

Ever since the Kenny Anderson fight he doesnt seem to have progressed as a fighter at all.

 

He went out with his hands down against Anderson (ignore the slow start rubbish that has stuck to him since) and very nearly paid the price. In fact I am on record as saying I think Anderson may just be one of those fighters who has his number.

 

He then went up against DeGale, a fight I thought he lost quite cleanly, but one in which the judges went his way by a point.

 

He blasted Paul Smith out, but going in to the fight a lot of people were saying Smith was shot and DeGale should have dealt with him a lot better than he did.

 

Then came last night. For the first round he boxed well. Looked smooth, nice tight guard, then all of a sudden it becomes a difficult fight for him. The hands come down, the smooth rolls and footwork completely disappear. He won last night purely because he was the stronger man who packed the bigger punch. He was getting caught far too easily. Even for the stoppage )and it was a cracking stoppage) he landed a great punch for the first knockdown but had actually been caught and shaken in the process.

 

I know, I know, hes been out of the ring for a while. Problem is the stuff he showed last night didnt look like ring rust. It just looked like a guy whose still fighting to a level he was 4 or 5 fights ago.

 

So George Groves. Future world champion whose progressing? Or a fighter who seems to have stalled?

[WelshDevilRob]

I think the nasty cut upset his rhythm but he does leave himself too open when attacking and he risks being Ko'd.

 

It was a fantastic finish against a decent enough opponent. Pity, the cut is now going to stall him.

[Skav]

Sierra was solid even though his record didn't suggest so. He proved that he belonged in there with the level of a Groves. I think it was the right step, he got experience fighting on foreign soil.

[Joe Ko]

The cut did change things because he thought it could get stopped and he would get a loss on the record, so he went for it, thankfully it didn't get stopped. I thought he showed ring rust and slightly underrated this guy for a fight at 2 weeks notice, I think Sierra is better than Kenny Anderson.

[brooklynbrawler]

Agree with a lot of the comments.

I thought he edged De Gale and I don't think he could have done much better against Smith than he did.

He was in troble against Anderson because he had the same "hands down" mentality in that fight.

I never really thought Groves would make it at world level, but it's still good to see him prove me wrong so far...