September 12, 2015 George Groves vs Badou Jack at MGM Grand, Grand Garden Arena, Las Vegas, Nevada, USA for the WBC World super middleweight title
Fight Highlights: Groves down in the first Round.
In a sad turn of events, George Groves once again fails to capitalize on a strong momentum by failing to defeat WBC champion Badou Jack held in Las Vegas. It was a George Groves vs Badou Jack that was watched by lots of celebrities because it was a match between two of the best fighters of the sport. Groves has never been the same after his match with Carl Froch and it was evident when the judges awarded Badou Jack the unanimous decision victory. It was a match that ended up being an undercard for Floyd “Money” Mayweather Jr.’s last match since he announced his retirement a few days ago. Groves can’t expect any title matches anytime soon after blowing three already with a couple coming against Carl Froch. Fie can just work his way back up the ladder with hard fought victories again and it won’t be long before it gets noticed.
Badou Jack went out of the MGM Grand impressive in his victory against George Groves and nobody can deny that. It looks like the only chance George Groves would get a televised boxing match is a match against James DeGale and it is far from a sure thing from happening. Groves has proved that getting knocked out a second time by Froch can be a disheartening experience. Fie has not been the same fighter after that. You can’t blame him since losing twice to the same fighter can affect your morality a lot. It is not the end for Groves though as he just has to do what any normal boxer would do and that is train hard for the next fight. It looks like Badou Jack did not celebrate long after his fight with Groves because he is ready to take on new challengers after that hard victory.
George Groves lost his third World Title fight in super middle-weight against the Swede Badou Jack in Las Vegas with a split decision. The fight seemed close and Groves was utterly disappointed with the result, but stats showed that the champion was much more efficient.
Lightning start
Badou had a great start and managed to floor the contender with two good rights at the end of the first round, and it seemed that Groves was in real trouble after reaching a countdown to 8. However, the Londoner managed to recover quickly and the fight seemed very even from then on.
Tough battle till the very end
Both fighters won some rounds with Grooves looking the busier one especially in the middle of the fight, when his jab was doing a great job keeping the champion at bay, and giving him the edge. Despite that Badou was very precise at times which helped him land some good combinations in the later stages in the fight. He looked the better of the two in between rounds 7-10, after launching some good punches in the body of his opponent. Groves managed to recover once again and showed a great fighting spirit in the last two rounds, winning them and landing some good hits.
Disappointment for Groves
The Englishman thought he did enough to win the title despite the tough first round, but only one of the judge’s cards had him winning 114-113, while the other were reading 116-111 and 115-112 for Badou. A quick look at the statistics showed that they probably got it right since Groves was more active, but the champions was more efficient. The Londoner threw about 200 punches more, but despite that Badou connected more than half of his punches and about 50 more in total. His dominance was especially convincing when it comes to power punches, as he had almost twice more than Groves, landing 127 in total, compared to the 68 of the contender.
