Nobody had ever seen Groves in that situation before, to assume he couldn't have recovered from being hurt like that isn't fair. To say Froch always comes on late as a means to justify it isn't either, we had never seen anyone beat the hell out of him that badly until then. The ref didn't see shit for the record, he was at a terrible vantage to stop the fight, had no eye contact with Groves and literally grabbed him before he could have even taken a knee or anything. Gun to my head I do think that Froch would have stopped him as he'd come on in the round prior, but I thought the fight was over in the first round as well. Groves could have clearly continued at that moment and it's impossible to know what would've happened, hence the stoppage being a complete farce.