Carl Froch v George Groves

The most controversial bout of the weekend occurred in the United Kingdom this past weekend as Carl Froch (32-2, 23) retained both the IBF and WBA "super" Super Middleweight title with a 9th round stoppage of fellow Brit George Groves (19-1, 15). Although a stoppage it was one of those "British Stoppages" that has fans around the world screaming and shouting at their TV's.

The first round was a huge shock as Groves didn't just start well but dropped Froch, scoring just the second knock down against Froch in his 34 fight career. Unfortunately for Groves the clock ran out out of time before he could pounce on a still hurt champion.

Although Groves had failed to jump on Froch when he was hurt he did manage to continue his success through the first four rounds as he used his speed and movement to make Froch look like a somewhat clueless fighter. The right hand hands and jabs of Groves were the dominant factor through these early rounds as Froch was tagged almost at will by Groves.

As we got to round 5 however Froch began to come in to the fight, in fact it was in round 5 that Froch began to have his first real success landing his own right shots whilst Groves began to slow. Although Sky commentator Jim Watt was refusing to give credit to Groves the fight was beginning to turn around and Froch was beginning to have more success on a round by round basis.

Although Froch has a good round 5 Groves came back well in round 6, unfortunately however he was warned for leading with the head and was really not looking like the fighter who had won the first 4 rounds. This was shown in round 7 as Froch has ended the round with a big flurry.

The finish of round 7 by Froch seemed to continue in to round 8 as Froch arguably won his second round of the fight as he rocked Groves. Groves was still certainly in the round but was beginning to make mistakes and show his inexperience as Froch began, finally, to find his own rhythm.

In round 9 Froch had his best round as he hurt Groves then went for the kill. Groves fougfht back as the two men brawled and then, almost as if he was told when to step in, Howard Foster stopped the contest awarding the bout via 9th round TKO, to Froch. This stoppage came as both men traded.