The official Cleverly v Bellew in play discussion thread

[Rexob]

I think Degale will stop Periban early?

[reggaereggae]

Poor stoppage, but still Degale looked good. I would favour him over Groves now; George's confidence has taken a serious knock.

James comes across as such a tool though. To say Carl is a 'coward' is just fornicating laughable.

Still, I'd definitely like to see Froch-Degale. Another needle fight....

Ps the legend Momma's Boy up next :-)

[Dixonian]

Unbelievable or depressingly believable, that stoppage was a disgrace. Surely, Howard Foster has to let an experienced fighter like Periban get to his feet before making an assessment. What was the hurry?

[lefty]

Groves ringwalk LOL

[jameswilson]

eff ME

Periban aint complaining, but I only think you should wave these things off when the guy is knocked clean out.

I'm unhappy with it, a guy who had never been stopped should have been given a chance to recover, and the ref stopped it moments after the second big punch landed, as Periban was going down. Maybe P would have been badly hurt if it carried on and the ref has to live with that. It feels premature but the ref is only human.

I agree it was premature. Maybe that wasn't clear from what I wrote. If he gets to 8 and the guy is still swaying about (which isn't inconceivable) then ok stop it.


Good to see Groves has opted against the London bus entrance.

[crusader]

Maybe P would have been badly hurt if it carried on and the ref has to live with that.

This logic justifies virtually every stoppage given that anyone can be badly hurt at any point in a fight.

[Neil Gee]

To say Carl is a 'coward' is just effing laughable.

Bang on!..but then DeGale isn't in an intelligence contest!

[jameswilson]

Cuts to one bloke in the middle of a stand of 1000 standing and cheering for Groves.....

[Finn]

I just wonder if he was stopping it early because time is cracking on for the main event.

[jameswilson]

I just wonder if he was stopping it early because time is cracking on for the main event.

Groves and Joshua are gonna blow their guys away so even had that fight gone the distance the main event would only be starting about 15mins later than planned.

[rhino222]

I just wonder if he was stopping it early because time is cracking on for the main event.

you cynical sod, surely not.

[Rexob]

Cuts to one bloke in the middle of a stand of 1000 standing and cheering for Groves.....

Pretty funny that

[rossij8]

Can't wait to see Groves call froch out again

[Old Jack J]

I love how groves' ears wobble when he gets punched. Its great in slow motion.

[jameswilson]

Talking about the Rebrasse fight the Sky commentators say they thought he looked good and didn't take much?

Were they watching the same fight? He took shed loads more punches than he should have.

[lefty]

Groves looking electrifying so far.

[Old Jack J]

Its time groves changed trainers again.

[Rexob]

Was going to say never seen a woman corner man before and it's his mother WOW never seen that before!

[Neil Gee]

This isn't the Groves of the first Froch fight. He isn't here tonight. Looks like an awkward fight for George, but I still think GG might land a big one any second.

[Boxing Prospect]

Also, on the "correct spelling of Otake" pedantry: Arguably there is a correct way to spell Otake in the Roman alphabet, because a) Japanese has far fewer sounds than English and, with only a couple of exceptions (e.g. the "f" in Japanese), they closely match their English equivalents; and b) there's an accepted way of transliterating Japanese words into romaji, the Hepburn romanization, which has been used for well over a century and is the accepted standard in Japan. I really should get out more but there are all these stacked boring undercards to get through first.

So is Otake the correct spelling then? lol

For what it's worth he has it with an h in his blog:
ameblo.jp/hidenori-ohtake/

[Sklar]

"Jim, have you ever come across a mother working the corner?"

Jim should have launched into an anecdote about Glasgow's red light district.

[jameswilson]

Expect Kalle will be on it in the post fight ifl tv interview.

[reggaereggae]

Its time groves changed trainers again.

Agreed. He really seems to have lost something. Not sure if it's the trainer, but he's getting hit a lot

[reggaereggae]

Doughlin, bless his heart is doing pretty well.... Mommy power!

[Sklar]

Has Froch damaged Groves or is Froch on the fade and Groves wasn't all that special in the first place?