Groves: I don’t think Anthony Dirrell can stand up to my power

By Jeff Sorby - 09/20/2014 - Comments

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George Groves (20-2, 15 KOs) captured the EBU super middleweight title tonight in beating champion Christopher Rebrasse (22-3-3, 6 KOs) by a 12 round unanimous decision in their WBC super middleweight eliminator fight at Wembley Stadium in London, UK.

Groves is now on a crash course for a title shot against WBC super middleweight champion Anthony Dirrell (27-0-1, 22 KO. Groves thinks that Dirrell would have folded had he been in the ring tonight instead of Rebrasse.

“I knockout a lot of guys and he [Rebrasse] took a lot on the chin tonight,” Groves said after the fight. “Dirrell, I don’t think he’d stand up to that. He’s the champion, I’ll give him that respect. He says he doesn’t want to come to the UK. We [Sauerland] might just make him. He says he doesn’t want to fight me. Well, now he has to. He better do his research because his facts so far are unclear and he’s in for a rude awakening. I want to keep busy, I want to keep the momentum. Hopefully, I’ll be challenging for the title before Christmas.”

I think Groves is going to need to be more worried about Dirrell’s power rather than vice versa. Groves is going to need to improve his stamina if he wants to beat Dirrell because the way that Groves fought tonight, he might have problems with Dirrell’s power. Groves showed excellent power against Rebrasse, but not the kind of crushing power that he’d need to stop a fighter like Dirrell.

If Dirrell was able to take Sakio Bika’s best shots without getting knocked out then the chances are high that he’s going to be able to take Groves’ best shots all night long. That means that Groves will need to go the distance if he wants to have a chance at beating Dirrell. It’s going to be asking a lot of Groves’ chin to go the distance with a puncher like Dirrell.

Froch doesn’t seem to think Groves will be able to take Dirrell’s power. Froch said tonight “I think he’s going to really struggle to beat Anthony Dirrell. I just think he’s just too much for him, especially down the straight.”