BoxRec

I've seen some interviews of George talking about Carl being mentally weak in the sense that he doesnt really have much true inner self belief in himself as a boxer. He needs to be told he's good to actually believe it and I tend to agree with George on that. Anyway, moving on from that I just wanted to ask people what their thoughts on Groves are in that area? The reason I ask is that George almost seems abnormal/freakish in his ability to deal with pressure and stress. Even in the first fight when there was a lot of distractions outside the ring with Booth and also just the magnitude of the event itself he seems cool as you could possibly be. Obviously that could be an act but if so he's very good at it. Do you think that's his natural personality or do you think he's almost trained himself to be that way? Possibly the influence of Booth, etc. He just seems to have the psychological side of boxing almost perfected to me. Very self confident.

columbo wrote:I've seen some interviews of George talking about Carl being mentally weak in the sense that he doesnt really have much true inner self belief in himself as a boxer. He needs to be told he's good to actually believe it and I tend to agree with George on that. Anyway, moving on from that I just wanted to ask people what their thoughts on Groves are in that area? The reason I ask is that George almost seems abnormal/freakish in his ability to deal with pressure and stress. Even in the first fight when there was a lot of distractions outside the ring with Booth and also just the magnitude of the event itself he seems cool as you could possibly be. Obviously that could be an act but if so he's very good at it. Do you think that's his natural personality or do you think he's almost trained himself to be that way? Possibly the influence of Booth, etc. He just seems to have the psychological side of boxing almost perfected to me. Very self confident.

Me and my brother was talking about this the other day, groves mental strength and pre fight attiude is second to none in Britain

You'd have to be either confident or downright stupid to wear some of those garish suits and ties he wears.

Hands down the worst dressed fighter I think I've ever seen this millennium.

Paisley ties, salmon trousers. Yellow teeth and ginger hair - he looks like a human disco.

G0mez wrote:You'd have to be either confident or downright stupid to wear some of those garish suits and ties he wears.

Hands down the worst dressed fighter I think I've ever seen this millennium.

Paisley ties, salmon trousers. Yellow teeth and ginger hair - he's look a human disco.

.... You have to admit though Gomez that he does seem very good in that particular area.

columbo wrote:

G0mez wrote:You'd have to be either confident or downright stupid to wear some of those garish suits and ties he wears.

Hands down the worst dressed fighter I think I've ever seen this millennium.

Paisley ties, salmon trousers. Yellow teeth and ginger hair - he's look a human disco.

.... You have to admit though Gomez that he does seem very good in that particular area.

Jehovah witness knock on doors and talk with absolute confidence to strangers they have never met before.

Mental confidence, or deluded ?

G0mez wrote:

columbo wrote:

G0mez wrote:You'd have to be either confident or downright stupid to wear some of those garish suits and ties he wears.

Hands down the worst dressed fighter I think I've ever seen this millennium.

Paisley ties, salmon trousers. Yellow teeth and ginger hair - he's look a human disco.

.... You have to admit though Gomez that he does seem very good in that particular area.

Jehovah witness knock on doors and talk with absolute confidence to strangers they have never met before.

Mental confidence, or deluded ?

Could be delusion! Whatever it is though, it seems to help him out. By the way when I created the thread it wasnt an admission that I think George will win. I'd still fancy Carl to do it. I've just been impressed with George in that regard

Groves can put an all time great chin on his arse and he knows it. If I could do that, I'd be uber confident

danconnollyeire wrote:Groves can put an all time great chin on his arse and he knows it. If I could do that, I'd be uber confident

Yeah but even before the fight he still had that aura about him. I wonder if Booth works on the mental aspect quite a bit with his fighters. Well David and George anyway.

100% belief in his own ability !

Carl has always been mentally fragile as a boxer. Hence the army of cheerleaders in the ring fight night against Groves. Groves? Mentally tough.

SMALL AXE1 wrote:Carl has always been mentally fragile as a boxer. Hence the army of cheerleaders in the ring fight night against Groves. Groves? Mentally tough.

Groves has no friends, apart from a small set of social media midgets.

He'd have looked like Snow Ginger and the seven dwarves.

Team Froch donned in full pleather and 99p looky looky man fake ray bans would have frightened them away.

Or maybe I'm underestimating them.

There could have been a full on attack with hundreds of social media midgets biting and hanging off Lee Froch, like a scene from Gremlins.

It could have been a pile of pleather, guts and blood - with one sat on top of it all wearing his shades at the end.

G0mez wrote:

columbo wrote:

G0mez wrote:You'd have to be either confident or downright stupid to wear some of those garish suits and ties he wears.

Hands down the worst dressed fighter I think I've ever seen this millennium.

Paisley ties, salmon trousers. Yellow teeth and ginger hair - he's look a human disco.

.... You have to admit though Gomez that he does seem very good in that particular area.

Jehovah witness knock on doors and talk with absolute confidence to strangers they have never met before.

Mental confidence, or deluded ?

Being deluded can be massively to a fighters advantage. A lot of athletes /boxers who genuinely believe that god is on their side and it gives them an edge - how can you lose if god wants you to win.

I recall Adam Booth saying Groves doesn't get nervous before a fight (could be telling porkies) but he said it was freakish and he just loves going out to box.

He has the one punch power to floor the Champ, youth, faster in both hand and foot speed and knows he had the beating of Froch in the first fight but a slight error in pacing/tactics and/or a shocking stoppage cost him. He also has the huge majority of support, I know people who are going, who know nothing about boxing, but are supporting Groves because "he was robbed"

His confidence is well founded and although I favoured him in the first fight I'm totally convinced now he wins the rematch

gazza8 wrote:He has the one punch power to floor the Champ, youth, faster in both hand and foot speed and knows he had the beating of Froch in the first fight but a slight error in pacing/tactics and/or a shocking stoppage cost him. He also has the huge majority of support, I know people who are going, who know nothing about boxing, but are supporting Groves because "he was robbed"

His confidence is well founded and although I favoured him in the first fight I'm totally convinced now he wins the rematch

totally agree

Groves is very impressionable,he takes on people's personas, he is now probably talking in an Irish accent & wearing a trilby.
I think George enjoys boxing like a kid does,but is not sure on how he has to act or come across & it's very much an act/ visard.
I remember after the Anderson incident he was saying he was not sure how he was suppost to be acting & has pretty much copied Hayes arrogance.

Froch is a bellend tho!! Talks on rendering people unconscious & comes across a right tool at times

You only have to look at the opposition Groves was prepared to box from the get go. He's confident and has the psychological strength to back it up.

He needed tons of mental toughness to get through the rough patches against Kenny Anderson and did so with flying colours. Same as when he boxed Paul Smith and James DeGale in different ways. He always finds a way to stay on top or turn it around...except if you got the ref dropping a huge clanger!

Wasn't there a rumour that him, Booth etc had to drive around the O2 a few times prior to Groves boxing Degale because of his nerves?

Only a rumour I heard somewhere. Could be no truth in it whatsoever!?!

James Harte wrote:Wasn't there a rumour that him, Booth etc had to drive around the O2 a few times prior to Groves boxing Degale because of his nerves?

Only a rumour I heard somewhere. Could be no truth in it whatsoever!?!

Didnt know that! Would be interesting if that was true.

All boxers have nerves but learn to keep them at the door!
Even naz had to enter the ring before the fight & mark his territory & with the gloves he was very over maticulous & mayweather is the same, it all has to be perfection in there minds to fill there sense of security. If you can't recognise nerves your in trouble as they can eat up the best of them

hurlock wrote:All boxers have nerves but learn to keep them at the door!
Even naz had to enter the ring before the fight & mark his territory & with the gloves he was very over maticulous & mayweather is the same, it all has to be perfection in there minds to fill there sense of security. If you can't recognise nerves your in trouble as they can eat up the best of them

Yeah I was just curious to whether George was some kind of robot

Depends on your definition of mental strength? Original poster was saying Groves seems to be ahead of Froch in this area? I don't quite understand that one? Outside of the ring he might be a better talker, but in the ring, no way mentally stonger than Froch.

Mental strength to me is being knackered and down on points in the 12th round and pulling out a KO (Jermain Taylor fight), or being down on points in round 9 and getting right back into the fight so much that George looked out on his feet in the last one (yes we can argue that all day).

Froch wins hands down in that department he's proven when the going gets tough that he can get in the trenches and grind it out. George seemed to wilt in there in the championship rounds last time when he was in deeper water than he'd ever been. I see some people are still clinging to the ref premature stoppage but he was wilting big time, so to me it's big question mark for this fight if it goes that far. George has a lot more questions to answer in this area than Froch.

jessi wrote:100% belief in his own ability !

This. When I say he can put Froch's great chin on the floor, I believe he knew that before the first fight

TheCobra wrote:Depends on your definition of mental strength? Original poster was saying Groves seems to be ahead of Froch in this area? I don't quite understand that one? Outside of the ring he might be a better talker, but in the ring, no way mentally stonger than Froch.

Mental strength to me is being knackered and down on points in the 12th round and pulling out a KO (Jermain Taylor fight), or being down on points in round 9 and getting right back into the fight so much that George looked out on his feet in the last one (yes we can argue that all day).

Froch wins hands down in that department he's proven when the going gets tough that he can get in the trenches and grind it out. George seemed to wilt in there in the championship rounds last time when he was in deeper water than he'd ever been. I see some people are still clinging to the ref premature stoppage but he was wilting big time, so to me it's big question mark for this fight if it goes that far. George has a lot more questions to answer in this area than Froch.

Well when I say mental strength I mean his unflappability. He always gives off an aura of being as cool as a cucumber. You have to remember, when he fought Degale he suffered a lot of verbal abuse in the build up off of Degale and also a lot of people thought he was gonna get knocked out based on how Degale had dealt with guys like Smith in the build up to the fight vs how Groves had struggled against Anderson. On top of that a lot of people (not so much hardcore fans) thought Froch would blast him away before their first fight and it was a big occassion whereby in the build up his trainer had basically told him to fornicate off and he was training out of what looked like a shed in Swindon with probably not a great deal of good sparring. All of that to me show's a certain amount of mental strength that isnt the norm with a lot of boxers who get worked up under the pressure of an impending fight. Particularily big fights. Froch also does have mental strength when it comes to within the ring itself as shown by his coming back from tough starts, ie taylor, Groves, etc. However I think it's more of a very strong will to win which is a slightly different type of mental strength. Anyway, just my take on it

There is no denying that Froch is super competitive and will get stuck in, he doesn't say die. He does seem to need people to talk him up and be around supportive people in certain situations. Groves doesn't need people around him to do that. In that respect he is mentally stronger than Froch. I imagine that if at the next press conference certain people were not allowed in to support Carl vocally then he would struggle and find it difficult to maintain his composure, Groves would have a field day. I don't imagine it'd mean a lot on fight night though, he does turn up to fight does Froch.