Froch v Groves II – The Handshake

Carl Froch:

“George Groves has been going to the opening of an envelope, dinning out on his round one knockdown against The Cobra and giving it large. But that’s his prerogative if he is enjoying the moment his little time his little five minutes of fame then you know he should do he should enjoy it, but really he should be concentrating on his fighting and his boxing.

“I wasn’t feeling sharp I didn’t really want to get in the mood. I didn’t really want to warm up or want to be on the ball, I was just like ‘let’s get this fight out the way’, and I’ve been there before in my career and I just want to get it done and dusted. My A-game, it wasn’t there that night, for many reasons.

“I hit George Groves with an over hand right hand that he didn’t see coming and his legs stiffened and he stumbled towards me. He grabbed my legs, the ref saw that and I saw it. George was gone; he was in serious, serious trouble. I shoved him off of me, backed him up against the ropes, landed a right hand, a left hook landed, another right hand, another left hook. He was stumbling looking like he was trying to do something, and he was gone looking at the floor, his arms was slumped and his head was slumped. I would have preferred the fight to have gone on longer because I was on top I was in control I was doing what I do I was punishing him and lining him up for the big finish.

“I never think about my opponent really unless he is mentioned. I don’t need to think about it I need to worry about myself I have probably been thinking too much about George Groves in the first fight in the training camp on the first build up to the fight I was probably thinking about him too much and that was part of his game plan to get under my skin and wind me up.

“It was effective and it worked but it will not happen twice – no chance. I might be stupid for the first one but I’m not double stupid, and I won’t make the same mistake twice. I can think about George, I cannot think about him, I can listen to him, I cannot listen to him, it’s all a bit ‘whatever, in one ear and out the other’. I’m just not paying any attention to him.”

George Groves:
“He is ignorant enough that if he is getting hit as long as he is landing something he will keep punching. Technically it’s terrible. It’s an awful, awful style you would never encourage a fighter to box that way, you would never encourage a young kid who’s just joined the gym to box like that.

“He is not a fighting man, he doesn’t stalk people, he doesn’t pressure fight, he doesn’t back people up with aggression. He likes to stand at long range flick out a jab and hope that switches his opponent off enough so that he can dive in gun-slinging punching from the hip, crossing his feet, after two three punches digging his heels in deep enough so he can keep punching.

“Every time he gets caught he wants to go and trade he only ever trades like that when he has no other options so again coming back to that warrior mentality. I feel like it’s a false truth because if he could sit and dance and look pretty then he would but he doesn’t have to ability to do that so it’s always back against the wall stuff with him. If you go back and look at his fights it’s always desperation and for that that’s the reason why you’ll see him fight he way he fights.

“If he wants to concentrate on the physical aspect and that he feels he can be physically superior or superior enough that he has won the fight before he enters the ring; I wish him luck. He’s eleven years older than me, he’s coming off the back of a horrific beating and if he trying to do something different and runs the risk of over training.

“He’s on his fight weight eight weeks out. You ask any World class fighter out there – that’s never a good idea. He can sit there and try and take confidence from the way I make weight, I might drop a couple of pounds the night before – it makes no blind a difference to me.”