Froch v Groves - My take on a brutal night of boxing

Controversial stuff as the ref intervenes incorrectly

So as the dust settles (and with two in play Froch bets won...barely) I just thought I'd give my thoughts on last night.

Firstly, hats off to George Groves who was probably the only one deep down that thought he had a chance in this super bout. Froch went off last night at 1.22, but Groves made a complete mockery of those odds inside the first round. Froch was floored, and floored comprehensively. The Froch drift was well under way by the 2nd and 3rd rounds, which is where I took my two positions at 2.20 and 2.20.

But the bout will be recorded in history as one of high controversy. Groves, who almost to a man was said to be 4/5 rounds up on Carl, was piling on the pressure through the early rounds but couldn't quite finish the job. Froch took some heavy, heavy shots. I mean the guy is made of steel. There were at least two or three right handers from Groves that would have KO'd lesser mortals.

Then came the moment of controversy. Many will have different opinions on this, but Froch's effort in the 9th was enough to sway the fight more than a 50% chance of him winning in my opinion. Groves may well have been up on the cards (albeit by a single round on two of the three which is embarrassing to the sport) but those rounds in the bank would have counted for nothing if Froch would have been allowed to finish the job.

My take on it is this; I think Froch would have won anyway. Boxing is amzing if not for key moments in matches that swing the momentum regardless of which man has the scorecard control. I believe that the referee stopped the fight way too early, and that given all that had gone on in the previous rounds, Groves should have been allowed at the very least to have fallen on his shield. He deserved the chance to lose properly!

Who knows what the outcome would have been if Groves was left to either take more punishment at that stage or what would have happened if Groves was either knocked down or weathered the storm. My feeling is that Froch would have put Groves down and that Froch would eventually have stopped Groves. But like I say, Groves deserved the chance to lose it. He definitely had enough in the bank to deserve to lose properly.

The referee then in my view acted inappropriately stepping in too soon. He would argue that he used his professional judgement to jump in  and stop life threatening damage. The point I would make here is that these guys know the issues associated with the sport and it seems that there are more and more of this type of dodgy stoppage than in yesteryear. I mean watch some of the old fights back again. Would the referee have stopped Ali against Foreman for taking sustained hits?

The whole thing wreaked of a little bit of the dodgy if I'm honest. I'm guessing that there was a lot of underground money on Froch from those looking to buy some cheap cash. I'm talking big money here. Whilst I'll go short of saying that the referee fixed the fight, there were two occasions where Froch could have had points deductions. It seemed that Groves would have had to have knocked Froch out of the ring to have won this one.

Which just leaves the issue of boxing as a whole. The sport is tarnished. It comes as no shock to anyone that follows it just how bad the image is. The sports anchors talk about it glowingly as a brilliant product these days, but it still remains a sport full of skepticism. Some of the judges scorecrads over the years have been a laughing stock. Some of the stopppages silly and ill-timed. Most of the PPV stuff is a total waste of money. The last 20 that I paid for, I'd say 4/5 I would class as decent or above. The whole sport is just rotten and it wonders why people view it with caution and snide comments. Will it clean up its act? I don't think so. Whilst there's huge money to be made by promoters the public will still always eye boxing as a completely dodgy sport.

That is not to say that boxing doesn't command human interest. Last night was enthralling stuff. If the match had gone to a logical clear conclusion then it would have gone down as a great fight. Both competitors deserve huge credit. Groves for proving everyone wrong and stepping up to that level and Froch for being the man of steel. And I guess still, deep down, boxing is one of the only sports through its barbaric nature that grips from a pure gladiatorial lust to see two perfect specimens hit the hell out of each other!