Tonight's action

First topic message reminder :

I see these started whenever there's a big fight on so I thought I'd be the one to start tonight's. Ok, there's no real big, competitive fight on, but hey.

So, tonight we have a few in interested (slightly) in: Groves, Joshua, Whyte and Mayweather.

My take? The guy Groves is fighting seems like the kind he was knocking out before he fought Froch. If he hasn't been broken by those two fights then I expect (and hope) for a stoppage in his favour.

Joshua I expect to win by stoppage within a few rounds, despite the nonsense hype. I was struck by Cornish's trainer saying that they fought similar level opponents, so I looked it up. He's fought, like, only three opponents with winning records. They're both 'untested', but they're records are a mile apart. Don't get me wrong, Cornish is coming to win, but only because he's undefeated and this circus has probably convinced him that this means they're equivalent. They're not. It's a mismatch.

Whyte will win by KO also. Another mismatch; a foregone conclusion, arranged to ensure nothing goes off the rails with regards to his and Joshua's 'rematch'.

Mayweather and Berto? UD. Hoping for a miraculous Berto KO, but Mayweather is a genius. I can't stand the guy, but he's head and shoulders above anyone in his weight division and is a living embodiment of the beautiful science. He will win. Clearly. He is a massive Mr Winklechops though and that really can't be overstated enough, I have to say.

Please post the action as it happens. I'll be following.

I gave the third to Jack - his jab is knocking Groves back on to his heels every time it lands. Groves' defence is horrible so far, and it's going to cost him if he doesn't shore it up.

29-27 Jack.

Groves isn't impressing but he's still in the fight.

Have it pretty much even through 4 rounds now good fight so far Jack a lot better than I thought originally to be honest

Finding this difficult to score if I'm honest it's dead clean both landing shots throwing similar

Better from Groves albeit Jack's reluctance to engage as much as he was earlier is giving him a bit of a hand. I've got Groves one up now.

Jack is doing better than I thought.

But then, Groves isn't performing as well as I expected. He's looked a bit flat.

Very good body punching in the eighth from Jack and I've got him back in front again now. Groves looking ragged to me, and Jack is physically bossing him in close.

Jack has remained tight and disciplined.

Looks like groves is going to lose this, unless he gets a ko

Jack might well fancy his chances of getting a stoppage here.

Jack won it.

I'd be surprised if the house fighter lost that.

Hhhhhmmm.....I've got it 114-113 to Jack, but he played it a little too cool for my liking in rounds eleven and twelve. Wonder if that'll come back to haunt him.

Credit to Groves great effort but I think he lost.

Big respect to Groves tho hope he can still get that fight with Degale.

Groves can't have any real complaints there, albeit the 116-111 card was wide. Jack the deserved winner in my opinion, and all credit to him. The BoxNation team are annoying me with this thinly-veiled suggestions that it's a questionable decision, or a bit of a home-towner. "You're not going to get those in the other guy's home town" and the like. Please.

Aside from outworking Jack in a few rounds, I didn't really see an area where Groves was the better man tonight. Jack's work was generally cleaner, his defence didn't leak as much and he made some great investments to the body which seemed to take the wind out of Groves between rounds 7 and 10.

Huge opportunity missed for Groves. Lucky he is a division that offers so many well paid domestic fights.

I was surprised Jack was able to take Groves right hand so well.

It was a closer fight than the 116-111 card suggested.

But groves didn't do enough. I thought he was a little flat.

Jack fought a disciplined fight and won a narrow decision.

Aside from the Degale win, Groves has always been to ill disciplined, he's just won fights on talent and determination.

He needs a decent trainer to get the best out of him because he should have won the fight tonight. He just blew it.

Yeah, I was a bit surprised by that as well, catchweight. Groves never really looked like budging Jack and he made the ol' puncher's mistake of loading up with what he was throwing after a while, using up a lot of energy hitting gloves.

Groves maybe got a little over-eager in the opener when he'd probably shaded the round before the knockdown, but after that everything just looked forced and rigid, whereas Jack had the cooler head and set his attacks up better and more efficiently for the most part. He definitely improved a good 20% here from any past performance I've seen of him, including the Dirrell win.

Well its been an excellent card notwithstanding main event will probably stink the place out

Anyone watching Marintez-Salido? I've got Martinez one up after the fourth. Cracking fight so far, lots of fun as you'd expect. Don't think Salido has thrown one jab so far!

Some hellish exchanges in this one. I've got it dead even after seven.

Incredible battle

FOTY for me this, I have Salido ahead but only just.

Agree, Jabby. Good to see you back, fella.

Tremendous fight - I've got it 115-114 to Salido, although he was a lucky boy to be credited with that knockdown in the third. What a scrap.

I can't remember a fight where there were this many punches thrown with so much malice - usually you'll find they're tippy tappy if there's a tonne of them.

Cheers, didn't think I was missed!

Edit: draw seems fair, can make a case for either to be honest. Thought Salido hit the better more clean shots, but the early rounds went to Martinez so the judges could also be looking more at work rate than the actual work.

Yep. A draw is fair enough.

That was some scrap fair play both tough cookies. Time to say farewell to a legend.....potentially. ....

Mayweather really is an artist.

I hate the bloke, but my god he's good. He also doesn't need Bayliss helping him like this.

NO NO NO STAHP STAHP STAHP every time he clinches. Not allowing any sort of inside boxing at all. I don't think Berto wins in any way shape or form, he's having a go but the most entertaining part is the fact they're trash talking.

You know you should probably call it a day
when even Floyd lights your face up like it's
Christmas

I had groves losing that fight by a round he can't really complain about losing

The boxnation team gave groves rounds that i feel he didnt deserve

So badou jack, a guy who couldn't beat periban and got sparked in a round by a light hitting journeyman, takes groves' best shots and outboxes him.

Is jack an improved fighter? Has groves regressed since froch? Did froch's age/style just flatter groves and this is his level? The booth/Fitzpatrick factor.

A combination of all those things?

Haven't seen the fight as I no longer have boxnation, but it looks like two guys meeting at a time their careers are heading in opposite directions.

I know it's different to David Price but I think Groves pre-Froch beats Jack. Price was tipped for World Titles and after two KO defeats to Tony Thompson he's finished. I hope it isn't the same for Groves after the Froch fights.

milkyboy wrote:So badou jack, a guy who couldn't beat periban and got sparked in a round by a light hitting journeyman, takes groves' best shots and outboxes him.

Is jack an improved fighter? Has groves regressed since froch? Did froch's age/style just flatter groves and this is his level? The booth/Fitzpatrick factor.

A combination of all those things?

Haven't seen the fight as I no longer have boxnation, but it looks like two guys meeting at a time their careers are heading in opposite directions.

Looking at him last night id say those factors all have a part to play, booth and his current trainer are total opposites between rounds with their styles of advice

Thought groves lost a close fight had it 114 113 jack was impressed with Jack he looked solid had a great jab and good defence

Mayweather carried berto for the first half and then put it on him especially on the inside he beat him up I had it wide for mayweather who looked sharp and impressive late on

Thought salida was unlucky he was landing more hopefully they do it again

Booth gets a fair bit of criticism, seems to be nothing special as a trainer at first glance and everyone, myself included, think he's got only one tactic.

I don't think Groves would have lost last night under Booth. I like Fitzpatrick but Booth had better gameplans, tactics and boxing brain. A nob but a clever and crafty one.

Yep groves doesn't look the same without booth

Credit to jack he was great

Jack vs degale for British revenge and bragging rights?

The Froch fights have definitely taken something from Groves.

Either Fitzpatrick is screwing up his training or the Froch fights have finished him because we have not seen the real George Groves in his past three fights.

Hammer he is definitely different.

The swagger is gone.

What was the Mayweather fight like? Was it boring?

Seen Joshua this morning. Was to be expected, but the man is a beast.

Mayweather looked good once he decided to go for it a bit

Looked sharp and fast beat berto up

Joshua is just plain scary. Knocks out Whyte inside 3 unless he goes cautious (not much chance of that).

FMJ, to be expected.

Whyte looked slow and easy to hit.

Groves? Hahahahahaha. Career = over. Just goes to show that a shopworn Froch made him look better than he really is.

Anyway, time to pop out brunch and a read of the Daily Mail and their mocking of the new opposition joke.

Think Froch has literally ruined Groves career and ended him. Has not looked the same was getting punched a lot by Rebrasse and then that other lad "mommas boy"

Floyd looks sharp I know he is getting a lot of stick this morning. ...especially off De La Hoya who stated "going to miss Floyd action packed fights, now on to a new era of Alvarez Cotto GGG and Lemiuex....real fights and real fighters"


Errrrrr two of those already go battered by said boxer Oscars. ...who is still clearly hurting over not beating him or finding someone to beat him.

Coxy001 wrote:

Anyway, time to pop out brunch and a read of the Daily Mail and their mocking of the new opposition joke.

You never know Coxy with a bit of luck Corbyn may have a dead war hero father whose memory they can take a p!ss on.

He's good value isn't he?

Seen Floyd fight.

Nobody outside Gennady could beat this man. Certainly no Welterweight.

Ok Berto isn't a top fighter now, but Floyd would of done that to Thurman,Khan,Brook,Porter,Garcia etc.

The only welter that can push him is Manny.

I do a lot of stirring, I hold my hands up.

I don't mind if people don't rate Floyd as ATG. We are all entitled to our own opinions. Anyway I hope that was his last fight.

The sport needs to move on. There a lot of good fighters to carry it.

P.s I also am a huge fan of GGG, but I like to stir Sh1t up sometimes.

Another shoddily refereed hugfest. No wonder Bayless gets his fights, pushes his opponents head down, clinches to eternity and uses the elbow liberally and not a hint at a warning. Dominated Berto with the jab though, he's just not intelligent enough, you can't throw single punchers or one-two's and expect to land. So predictable.

I think the loss of booth is more of a contributer to Groves lack of performance than Froch.

The issue is his tactics and possibly training, not that he is gun shy or anything that could be contributed to a slump in confidence.

His jab has lost all authority, during and before the Froch fights it was a ramrod used to set up the right hand but now there's just nothing there at the moment.

I think the Froch fights flattered Groves a bit. Froch knows this and I think he retired at the right time.  Groves speed was a huge advantage in those fights but he doesn't posses that advantage over some of the other SMWs. He's a good fighter but I think he's behind DeGale, Andre Dirrell and a couple of others.

I don't buy this "Groves is finished" malarchy the lad has just lost a close decision for a world title. I thought Groves performed quite decent in a really enjoyable fight , Jack was a little better than i thought. I think Groves gives any super-middle a decent tussle.

Not a Mayweather fan as many know , but i thought he was awful i really do - I thought the fight was closer than perceived- Mayweather seems to score points for doing bot all. I would love to know the total of quality punches landed - the guy is defensively outstanding but his offense was awful and made hard work of Berto in a hug-fest. Best news of the weekend if the retirement is real.

Cheers, Rodders