Big Boxing Thread

[mondatoo]

Clinic!

[Tal]

With Ward losing his WBC belt for inactivity earlier in the year, and after fighting last week in a non-title fight because his opponent couldn't get to 168, I think his people only have one option and that is to fight Froch again. If that phone call comes, Froch will have no better chance than in his next fight.

Groves might have to wait.

[millidonk]

British referees are a joke. Obviously this one will get a lot of attention due to the profile of the fight but it's far from the worst stoppage I've seen in recent times. No one wants to see fighters badly hurt but in Britain referees have gone far too far the other way. They cannot wait to jump in if a fighter looks hurt in any way.

[millidonk]

Why is Eddie Hearn beaming like a Cheshire cat when he runs into the ring, seconds after the fight is stopped?

Not sure i would be to happy about that if he was my promoter like Groves

Rematch $$$ innit.

[Tal]

Mr Flintoff has been a-tweetin':

Glad that Ref isn't in Brisbane , think he'd have stopped the test by now ! #englandontheropes
11:58pm - 23 Nov 13

[kinboshi]

I remember the uproar over the Holyfield v Lewis fight, mostly by people who don't understand how boxing scoring works.

You can win 4 rounds by a mile, and then lose four rounds by the slightest of margins. The result is that the scores are level. How individual rounds are scored is also misunderstood.

As for the fight tonight, I had Groves ahead by three rounds. Of course, some of the rounds were close and if one of these was the other way, then that would be Groves ahead by just the one round.

Whilst what you say is technically right Dan I don't see what relevance it has to this fight.  Groves had a 10-8 round to start the fight.  Froch would have to have won the rest of the fight to only be down by one. 

Not sure I get what you're saying here. Froch only needs to edge two rounds to negate the first round.

There just wasn't anything like enough close rounds.

I thought some of the rounds were a lot closer than Jim Watt was indicating. Like I said, I had it three rounds to Groves, and that includes the 10-8 round. It'll be interesting to see the judges scorecards and see where they agree and disagree.

  You can look at it anyone of a number of ways but I think the simple fact of the matter is that they put a bad referree in the middle.  When I saw he was reffing I though to myself that it was a long way from the York Hall to here and he reffed the whole bout like it.  There were numerous cases of the fighters failing to break, putting in sly (and not so sly) digs after the break call and a couple of punches on the back of the head went unpunished too.  The only way it could have been worse would have been if Ian John Lewis had been in the middle.  The whole thing was embarrassing and coming hot on the heels of the Burns fiasco British boxing in general, and Matchroom in particular has a lot of work to do.

I agree that the ref was poor. That didn't affect the scorecards really though, unless he should have deducted a point, or was letting one fighter get away with something but pulling up the other for the same thing.

The fight was stopped prematurely in my opinion, but just don't see the conspiracy theory behind the scorecards. As I said, if the ref had let it continue, and Froch had legitimately stopped Groves, the state of the cards wouldn't really be a massive talking point. I've seen fights such as Barrera v Morales I that were much more debatable in terms of the scorecards.   

[Bazzaboy]

With Ward losing his WBC belt for inactivity earlier in the year, and after fighting last week in a non-title fight because his opponent couldn't get to 168, I think his people only have one option and that is to fight Froch again. If that phone call comes, Froch will have no better chance than in his next fight.

Groves might have to wait.

Groves rematch will be worth more $$. Froch is now in a bit of a predicament, the two biggest fights out there for him are Ward and Groves. I'm not sure he wins either. Groves made him look an old man at times last night and if they fight again in 4-6 months time the time will only have been a friend to one of them. I wouldn't be completely shocked if we didn't see Froch in the ring again.

[Leatherman]

Wow what a night!!!

Lost my voice all shouting I did for groves, was a lot of Froch fans around me, went down well  

Couldn't belive all Boo's Groves got, but after that Tez decision and great performance from Groves all that changed.

Enjoyed undercards and whilst grabbing a beer bumped into John Murray for a chat which was cool.

Can't wait till I get chance to go to another big fight, hopefully rematch but can't see Froch wanting that.

#frochgotpwned

[TightEnd]

what a huge surprise. Controversial stoppage allowing another PPV with more hype in a few months time

People really believe Matchroom events aren't just money spinning fixes?

Amazing

[Matt.NFFC.]

I had Groves up by 4 or 5 and, whilst being no expert, it just seems that another 10 seconds would make all the difference between whether he had enough to take the shots or would have gone down to his knees.

I thought refs are supposed to step in and break up the fight.....not being on the wrong side and headlock the injured party.

I'm a huge Froch fan, but went to bed disappointed with the win, and also saddened because I didn't like the way Froch conducted himself in his interviews.  I wish he could have said that Groves is the real deal and has won many more fans......but sadly, not to be by Froch.

I was at the Froch Kessler fight and am glad I chose the right fight to be honest.  Would be angry if I had paid £80 for that outcome.

[Skippy]

what a huge surprise. Controversial stoppage allowing another PPV with more hype in a few months time

People really believe Matchroom events aren't just money spinning fixes?

Amazing

You should get into wrestling Tighty, at least that way you know it's fixed and you can have a good time watching them fix it :-)

[kinboshi]

Carl Froch definitely has a touch of the Calzaghe about him. Really lacks charisma in front of the camera.

Doesn't really know how to endear himself to the public.

[redarmi]

what a huge surprise. Controversial stoppage allowing another PPV with more hype in a few months time

People really believe Matchroom events aren't just money spinning fixes?

Amazing

For this to be true though you have to assume there will be a rematch.  I am not at all convinced by this.  Froch isnt normally one to duck a fight though so.....

[Matt.NFFC.]

Gut feeling is Froch will go after Ward......lose again and retire, leaving Groves next up to challenge Ward.

[Acidmouse]

How can Froch be confident going into a big fight again after this? Groves made him look like a slow chump. Until we know how good Groves really is Froch is on borrowed time.

Watched the final round again and I am convinced Froch would have won 10 seconds later then the Ref stopped it, he was just lining up shot after shot on Groves and its better to stop it earlier then too late.