BoxRec

comments please after last nights performance!!

Oh I think Degale and I thought it was the other way round but I still think Groves is a top prospect. He just needs to be reigned in and sort a few things. He showed great heart, fighting spirit and the ability to come back from adversity. You can't teach that.

Let's see how Degale does against Smigga before we really put the knives in on George (I can hear them being sharpened as we speak)!

Groves has been found out ,Travis Dickinson done the same in the ams,He will not get past britsh level and it was the bell that saved him.If Anderson had a bit more notice instead of 3 weeks i think he would of won and he is not a big puncher

Wasnt to impressed with groves last night his defence is terrible..degale or smigga next dont think he will beat either to be honest.

Stab 1... good old Buncy. How you'ved changed, I'm sure I remember you raving about him when he was a lad.

I thought groves was gonna go to world level with degale but after watching that shambles last night, he didn't listen to his trainer, he gassed after 2 and he showed he can't take much of a shot. I thought he would beat anyone domestic now I'm thinking smigga would defo beat him. I'd say European level at best now.

Hopefully he will show in the gym/his next fight that he can absorb the lessons from this... he got the win but looked very vulnerable in doing so, and a better class of fighter would have taken him all the way out. When he used his feet he looked in control, but he got drawn in too often to close quarters, and his open defence doesn't really allow for that.

I still say Groves as I'm not sure Degale will get past Smith.

Groves' mistakes are manageable and to be honest I thought he showed good recuperative powers. That left hook he took on the ropes was a beauty and he stayed on his feet. He's only 22 and has a bit of growing up to do that's all. Bloody hell, you get hurt and knocked down and you go from can't-miss prospect to 'exposed'. David Haye, Amir Khan, Nigel Benn, Michael Watson... they all got beat, knocked down, knocked out before they won world titles yet still came back to succeed. We're far too quick to right people off on here.

Also, he has a fight cancelled and has to readjust and then takes on in Anderson a fortnight after he had prepared and fights on a huge bill against an unbeaten, five-years older, quality former amateur who was unbeaten and up for it and he came through... bit of credit due there don't you think.

Don't agree with Bigdaddy about time to prepare, it works both ways and if you're an up and coming young pro fighter with ambition you should always be in the gym and ready for something to come up. Get real, you are not afforded the luxury of world-title level 8-week preparation until you are a world champion.

Anderson is a tougher opponent than anyone de gale has fought yet , i like de gale and think he can beat groves before last night even happened but lets not be too harsh on groves , if anything he will come out of that as a better fighter , if de gale comes through against smith he will be massively confident of beating groves after last night but that could turn the fight in groves favour , Groves now knows how to dig in a bit deeper , an experience that de gale has yet to have had

Yep Groves needs to concentrate on becoming a better fighter. When he came in last night I was thinking 'beginning to believe your own hype sunhsine' as he stood there smirking. Deep down I bet he'll look at the recording of the fight and he should be thinking the wheels nearly came off and I've got some work to do. Good learning fight and reality check at the same time. He's a fighter that's for sure. Let's see if Degale has to come through a gut-check against Smigga.

I think that it could serve as a wake up call. First time I have seen him & TBH he needs to box a lot better than that if he steps out of British class.

There's a lot at work here, for a start, not much has been made of the fact that Groves was due to fight on Oct 30th before the last minute cancellation, it's not much of a stretch to believe him when he says he was peaking a couple of weeks ago. Saying Anderson only had 2 weeks to prepare isn't quite true, this fight had been made quite a while back before it was switched to Toney. Chopping and changing who you're going to fight twice and then being told to wait a couple more weeks at your peak really can't have helped.

As much as those things worked against Groves, I'm not trying to say they were the absolute cause for the bad performance. I think Anderson's style was the biggest problem for Groves. A come-forward fighter with a rock solid chin, a hurtful puncher, hardly wasted a shot and simply walked Groves down, giving him no room to breathe. That's near enough the polar opposite of Degale in terms of style.

I just don't think Groves is used to playing matador, he's usually the aggressor and it would seem that putting him on the backfoot takes him right out of his game. Someone on here compared him to Benn, without the dig. That's a fairly good comparison I'd say and as such he's likely going to give some fighters an awful time of it, at the same time, guys with the right style are going to give him fits. I can almost appreciate the losses to Dickinson now, even though I haven't seen them.

As far as Degale goes, I thought he'd beat Groves before saturday's fight and not much has changed. I don't think some massive gulf has suddenly opened between them, that's still a competitive fight, but it's clearly off the table until Groves reasserts himself.

pyenest77 wrote:I think that it could serve as a wake up call. First time I have seen him & TBH he needs to box a lot better than that if he steps out of British class.

Quite agree - though it has been said for years that the British obsession with the "domestic scene" is the undoing of many good fighters. Groves wasn't bad last night, and he did beat a genuine, live opponent in some style, so I think him and Degale would still be one worth seeing. As for who would win, that depends how bad of a number Smigga does on Degale - I can see that one being a real blood and guts fight and will still have a few notes on teh Champion!

Atm Groves gets beaten by Smith Degale and Quigley imo

groves will learn from last night, groves has fought better opponents then degale so far in the pros. Will have to wait and see about degale when he fights smith, I think smith will beat degale. Smith will drag degale to places he has never been before in the ring. Cannot wait for the scouses to start takin the piss out of degale when he does the stupid robot thing he does

so i go for groves

damianhucker1 wrote:Anderson is a tougher opponent than anyone de gale has fought yet , i like de gale and think he can beat groves before last night even happened but lets not be too harsh on groves , if anything he will come out of that as a better fighter , if de gale comes through against smith he will be massively confident of beating groves after last night but that could turn the fight in groves favour , Groves now knows how to dig in a bit deeper , an experience that de gale has yet to have had

Excellent post. You can't teach heart and the will to win -ie Audley, but technical aspects of the sport can be learned and improved upon. We know a lot more about Groves now and it's good. We can't really make an informed judgement on Degale as yet as his best opponent in Carl Dilks is nowhere near as good as Kenny Anderson and was beaten by Charles Adamu, who Groves beat with ease. Degale Vs Smith will answer a lot questions. I'm looking forward to it.

DIRT SUGAR wrote:Groves' mistakes are manageable and to be honest I thought he showed good recuperative powers. That left hook he took on the ropes was a beauty and he stayed on his feet.

Very true, his chin's not bullet proof, but he did well to come back from what was fast turning into a nightmare for him. He needs to lose the hands down style, the Haye style cockyness too. Booth was giving him good advice but he couldn't see past the red mist, he almost blew it there. It'll make him a better fighter for it though.

At the moment DeGale looks the better bet.

still think groves is a top prospect. the fight last night exposed a lot of flaws most already knew he had, but also showed he has a warrior mentality and a biiig heart. hopefully he will learn from this and rematch anderson early next year.

degale is better technically (or is when he punches properly) but we have no idea how he will respond when taken into the trenches. smigga should do that in december

To cut Groves a bit of slack,

He beat undefeated Kenny Anderson, who is a very dangerous and capable fighter by stoppage.

Looking tired and rough round the edges aside, it's a better scalp than anyone Degale has fought.

That said, Groves really needs to stop jumping around and burning loads of energy up. Stay in range more and slip shots rather than have a trade-off then run.

Composure and physical conditioning are the main things he lacks right now. But he is 22 and has plenty of time and can add them as he matures into a man.

bigdaddy wrote:Groves has been found out ,Travis Dickinson done the same in the ams,He will not get past britsh level and it was the bell that saved him.If Anderson had a bit more notice instead of 3 weeks i think he would of won and he is not a big puncher

Anderson can bang mate big time.

bigped wrote:

bigdaddy wrote:Groves has been found out ,Travis Dickinson done the same in the ams,He will not get past britsh level and it was the bell that saved him.If Anderson had a bit more notice instead of 3 weeks i think he would of won and he is not a big puncher

Anderson can bang mate big time.

Anderson can dig, but he didn`t want any of it when it started to come his way. No complaints from him about the stoppage, he was done when the ref jumped in.

Give Groves credit, he cam through a hard fight against a quality opponent and he out muscled him at the end of the day. It certainly wasn`t better boxing from Groves that won it, it was his reluctance to lose and his ability to keep firing hard shorts that eventually broker Kenny down.

wow a few days ago and the opinion was split on whether anderson or groves was gonna win, groves goes out in a war gets dropped yet overcomes his battle hardened foe inthemid rounds and he has been found out...wow just wow.

I guess Nigel benn got found out when he fought Logan as well huh...lets nto forget degale is by no means sure of beating smigga not by a long way.