It’s sometimes easy to forget that George Groves 26 (19 KO’s)-3 (2 KO’s)-0 is only 29, his career has been littered with ups and downs, beating James Degale six years ago, to the two Carl Froch losses, to knocking out Fedor Chudinov in Sheffield in May this year to finally win a world title in his fourth attempt. With the blips that he’s had you’d be hard pushed to believe that he’d overlook an opponent again, but many people are already writing Swindon’s Jamie Cox 24 (13 KO’s)-0-0 off in anticipation of a semi- final clash against Chris Eubank Jnr in the World Boxing Super Series.
It’s not difficult to see why some people are writing Cox off, his record doesn’t include any top- level fighters from either a European or even British level, his last two opponents had a combined total of 36 losses, and he was forced to go to a decision in his most recent fight. Even so, Cox appear to have fast hands, throwing combinations mostly to the body and sometimes combining this with a straight left upstairs, and although his knockout ratio isn’t the best in boxing, he does carry power with his right hook being his best punch. If he is going to give Groves any trouble he’s going to have to be very active early on and make Groves work hard keeping Cox off on the back foot. Although he occasionally forgets his boxing skills at times preferring to fight in a brawl and using some blatantly dirty tactics. For instance, in his fight against Martin Fidel Rios he could have very easily been disqualified for illegal use of his head and his elbows.
If George Groves ends up winning this fight it puts him on a path to redemption that could finally let the public forget his two defeats to Carl Froch. However, some of the magic that was shown in the Froch fights has certainly dwindled, following his trainer change to Shane McGuigan. The most obvious difference is his more upright stance with slightly narrower feet, and the lack of the old George Groves foot movement. This new style isn’t without its advantages, with narrower feet he expends less energy moving around the ring, shown in his two recent decision wins against Martin Murray and Eduard Gutknecht, but the slower feet mean he can’t dip in and out of the pocket like he used to. Groves however has a lovely jab that he loves to dictate the fight from at the centre of the ring, and he can make good use of feints early in the fight drawing leads that are then slipped and countered.
Although this version of Groves is a little shop-worn and it should be a tough battle, I still see him getting getting the mid round stoppage. Cox may win some of the early and middle rounds from landing body shots and backing George up, but down the line I see the jab and versatility of Groves trumping Cox’s raw aggression, setting up the all British semi- final fight that we all want to see.
Also at super middleweight London’s John Ryder 24 (12 KO’s)- 4 (1 KO)-0, takes on Patrick Neilsen 29 (14 KO’s)-1 (0 KO’s)-0.