Kaaspeer wrote:BLOCK 1:
the winner of...
Arthur Abraham vs. Lucian Bute
fights the winner of...
Sakio Bika vs. Robin Reid
BLOCK 2:
the winner of...
Edwin Rodriquez vs. George Groves
fights the winner of...
Librado Andrade vs. Edwin Rodriquez
Winner of Block 1 & 2 fights each other.
How do you see such a tourney going, match-for-match?
Abraham who was comprehensively beaten by the elite fighters at 168, against a fighter beaten up and stopped by Froch and now timidly campaigning up at 175? OK I'll play along. Abraham comes forward with a high guard, weight drained Bute is intimidated by his power, nobody hardly throws, Abraham KO's Bute in the late rounds.
A dug up (why you feel the need to include him I have no idea) Robin Reid, who last time out got KO'd by Kenny jeffing Anderson in 2012, get's mauled to fornicate by Sakio for a mid rounds stoppage.
Possibly the only interesting fight at this point, and one I would care to see happening, Robert Stieglitz really only has the trilogy of fights with Abraham and Groves has his two fights with Froch, a bigger and classier operator. You can probably make the case for either, but you can argue Groves might have gone on to win against Froch in the first and held his own until the stoppage in the 2nd, landing huge punches on old Iron Face that would have knocked out or at least knocked down lesser fighters. I also think he'll come back stronger from that loss. Groves by KO late rounds.
Andrade is another guy campaigning at light heavy after having a patchy smw career. He'll be drained at the weight and Edwin Rodriquez will probably win, as his only loss is to Ward although I haven't watched a lot of him and never watched the Ward fight either. Based on record alone, I'll go with Rodriquez.
Block 1 winners face off.
Sakio is bigger and stronger, iron chinned and managed to give every elite fighter he fought at 168 a fight even in losing. By contrast, Abraham has been completely outclassed by every elite fighter he's fought at the weight, and has gone to points with everyone else in the 14 smw fights he's had bar 4, 3 of whom were people I've never heard of and poor old Jermain Taylor, a middleweight who'd been sparked badly by Kelly Pavlik and then Carl Froch previously. The last fight Abraham was in he looked flat and frustrated and the KO was never going to come. Sakio on points.
Block 2 winners face off.
Rodriguez against Groves: hard to call. Groves has the power, Rodriguez has the better chin. Groves outboxed Degale though, who I think is seriously underrated and is going to win a title in the future, so for this reason I'm going to say Groves TKO 7.
Sakio vs Groves: I have mentioned this before, but a couple of years ago I met Adam Boothe when he was still training Groves and told him I thought George should fight Sakio Bika. Boothe looked at me like I was insane, and said that Sakio is a difficult opponent for anybody. Sakio has won a title since then, while Groves has been sparked. I'd go with Sakio, but if George lands a round 1 Froch punch, Sakio is in a world of trouble. Until George shows he can come back from that loss, or Sakio loses his title, I'd say flip a coin.
There you go.