George Groves Shocks Carl Froch Until Controversial Stoppage

In a Fight of the Year brawl, super middleweights George Groves and Carl Froch tangled spectacularly for the latter’s IBF and WBA super titles last night at Manchester’s Phones 4u Arena.

The media build up to the bout had been long and full of bad blood with Groves incensing Froch by not paying the champion what Froch felt was proper respect and also by claiming he would take the fight straight at Froch.

Groves surprisingly delivered on his promise, rejecting his usual cagey boxer approach for that of a slugger and by the end of the first round, Froch had been dropped hard with a short right hand counter.

It was a stunning occurence, no one had expected the far less experienced Groves to be stalking Froch, a renowned world champion, who was very wobbly following the knockdown before being saved by the bell.

Groves belted Froch around with right hands for the next three rounds, taking an increasing amount of resistance from Froch in each frame, and while the challenger shook Froch a few tomes, he couldn’t repeat his first round clattering.

Froch mounted a comeback in the fifth, regaining his confidence and pushing Groves back with a two-handed attack but the challenger was still faster than Froch and was punching back well.

Perhaps Groves was taking a bit of a rest in the fifth as he came roaring back in the sixth, hammering his rival with a raft of rights and while Froch was shaken, he kept coming forward and got his punches in as well.

Groves became a boxer in the seventh with good results but seemed to tire in the eighth, with Froch taking advantage of the slowdown to take the fight inside.

Froch caught and hurt Groves with a hard right to the head in the ninth and the two went into a brawl with Froch landing several hard shots and Groves punching back but not landing much when all of a sudden, referee Howard Foster grabbed Groves and waved off the contest at 1:32 of the round.

While Groves was hurt and getting hit hard, the stoppage appeared to be early and a rematch will almost certainly be on the cards for early 2014.

Froch goes to 32-2 (23) while Groves stands at 19-1 (15) after suffering his first loss.