Boxing Thread

[J OGorman]

Thinking of getting it myself, better on big screen etc but how likely is it that a really good non buffering stream will be available?

Wiziwig, Vip Box all should have decent streams. My shout would be try it 30-40 mins before the fight and if its no good at all pay for it!

I normally would have checked during the undercard and didn't mind booking last minute but now they have the surcharge for booking on the day.  Usually don't watch many of the undercard fights but nearly more interested in seeing DeGale get his head knocked off than anything else.  Virgil Hunter put him in his box yesterday.

nrico, if yer mad keen to see the fight, I'd dip for it or split it between a couple of you. I've been heartbroken a good few times in the past with links dropping or freezing during bouts. Also had seemless streams, its the chance you take. Not great for the old stress levels though!

Yeah I agree. Really wanna see the flight. Even when you manage to get a decent stream, your enjoyment is almost ruined as in the back of your mind your waiting for it to freeze. It could be explosive at any second.

Aye, same here.  Plus, not the same on a wee screen.  Ill probably order it tonight then.

its not that long ago we'd have been sitting around the radio listening to McGuigans earlier fights !

[Archie Mitchell]

Anyone know of any bars in Cookstown, Dungannon or Magherafelt showing it......

Mary's in Magherafelt showed the last fight. But it was on some foreign channel and not proper Sky Box Office

[STREET FIGHTER]

Anyone know of any bars in Cookstown, Dungannon or Magherafelt showing it......

Mary's in Magherafelt showed the last fight. But it was on some foreign channel and not proper Sky Box Office

Cheers AM......Some mix of characters in Marys......from all walks of life.....

Booking it in instead.

[BennyHarp]

What time is the Froch v Groves fight?

walk in will be 10/10:30pm apparently Walter

Ring walk at 9.45. Press conference was relatively civilised there. Looking forward to this, £17 is a bit steep but I just don't trust the online streaming.

[Atticus_Finch]

Despite the controversial, premature end to the first bout it was one of the most enjoyable fights I have been to and I said at the time that if a rematch was made that I would be there no matter what.  Groves entered the arena getting booed by the English fight crowd and left the arena getting cheered.  This time round I think Froch will once again emerge as the victor but in a lot more clear cut fashion than the first fight.

I don't think anyone could have predicted what was going to unfold that night in Manchester.  The first thing that struck me in the fight was that Froch looked sluggish and it wasn't a case of Grove's speed making him look sluggish.  Groves does not have faster hand speed than Andre Ward, I put Froch looking sluggish down to his preparation.  I genuinely think that he went into the fight being complacent.  I listened to Mike Costello talk that ahead of the first encounter Froch was classing Groves as his "Audley Harrison" i.e. someone who would talk a good fight but when it came to the crunch not live up to his words.  If that is true and Froch genuinely believed that he was doing a complete disservice to Groves who deserved a lot more respect than that.  Credit where credit is due Groves entered fought that night in Manchester with no fear and was brilliant.  By the end of the sixth round I think he had thrown the kitchen sink at Froch and had nothing left to give, after which point Froch started to finally recover and the tide started to turn.  That's not taking away from the joke of a stoppage.  As a neutral I felt cheated being deprived of what should have been a couple more rounds of great action.

This time round I am not entirely convinced that even Groves himself believes he will win the fight.  I find it a bit strange that he would sign a promotional deal with Sauerland (Kessler's promoters) just before the fight.  Surely if he believed he was going to win he would be better off waiting until after the fight and would receive a pound or two more being the number 1 Super Middleweight on the domestic scene ?

A lot was made of the so-called "mind games" battle in the run up to the first fight with even Froch admitting now that Groves got "under his skin".  This time round, from the build-up I've watched, Froch looks a lot more composed and seems to be coming out on top.  In Sky's "Gloves are off" programme featuring the two fighters Froch had Groves lost for words on a number of occasions (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qNxhpXB7bhU)     Froch seems focused and confident, there is no risk of him entering the ring complacent this Saturday.

Froch has also got his "weigh"  over a dispute about the weigh in time.  Groves is the naturally heavier fighter and the earlier the weigh in time is the more time he has to put on weight.  In Manchester from what I can remember the weigh in time was 12, this time round it is 4pm mainly to suit Sky coverage.  The less time Groves has to put on weight the better it is for Froch.  If I was predicting the flow of the fight I think the first opening rounds will be a cagey enough affair similar to the Kessler fight but from there on I would expect a sharp (in comparison to the 1st fight) Froch to start coming out on top and forcing a stoppage in rounds 6 / 7.  No doubt now I've said that Groves will win by KO in the 1st round. 

Shrewd move by Eddie Hearn signing James De Gale to matchroom.  No doubt De Gale will watch the main event feeling he should be involved.  If Groves loses I could see the pair of them fighting first, rather than De Gale fighting the winner.   You have to give credit to Hearn while boxing will not be the mainstream sport it once was until terrestrial television is back covering it.  For a fight to have a sell-out crowd of 80,000 suggests that things are going in the right direction. 

Agree with what has been said on here, I wouldn't want to be relying on a stream to watch the fight.  Sky has a lot more resources to clamp down on streams than Box Nation or Primetime.   Much better getting a group of fellas together chipping in a few pound each, if the second fight is a patch on the first one it will be money well spent.

Couple of good weekends of boxing coming up with Cotto vs Martinez next weekend in Madison Square Garden.
No better feeling when a Thursday is your Friday and you're clocking off ahead of a fight weekend !  G'Luck

[quit yo jibbajabba]

fair play atticus always enjoy yer boxing posts

[STREET FIGHTER]

fair play atticus always enjoy yer boxing posts

Me too.  Excellent stuff AF.

Hopefully the young buck can do the business on Saturday night.

[The Iceman]

Boxing in the UK and Ireland seems to be setting the stage for the rest of the world with the right business model. Rivalries and bad blood sell fights. I imagine the majority of young people are not excited about this fight but I know anyone who grew up in the era of Eubank, Benn and Collins and the like are buying the PPV's and attending this fight live. De Gale, Eubank Jnr, Groves, Froch (just at this weight division or thereabouts) makes for some exciting matchups and great build ups in the next few years.
I think the way, as you say A.F, to resurrect boxing is to get it back on terrestrial TV and really highlight these fighters.
I'm taking Froch all day on this one. Groves looked mentally defeated at the press conference.

[Walter Cronc]

Good insight into the life of George Groves.

A couple of months ago, on a sunny morning in Twickenham, George Groves looked ahead to his rematch tonight against Carl Froch with the same quiet amusement and interest he used when describing his plans for that afternoon. Sitting in the garden of a famous old rugby pub, the Cabbage Patch, he smiled when discussing Froch's attempts to control himself amid Groves' needling provocations. He then outlined the role he would play at an Easter play to be performed a few hours later at a primary school.

His wife Sophie, "Mrs Groves" to her class, had been working for weeks as she helped her small students prepare for their end-of-term production. The innocence seemed striking when set against a bitter fight between Froch and Groves. This is the kind of ominous contest which can make even a seasoned boxer pause in his loneliest moments. It is a fight with the capacity to force Froch and Groves, two hard but intelligent men, to feel apprehensive when they consider everything they could lose.

Groves is different in public. His ability to remain amiable and smart marks him out as a distinctive presence in boxing's anarchic world. There also appears to be a contentment at home that contrasts with the unsettled mood of many fighters outside the ring. He celebrated his birthday in late March and our plan to stage the first in a series of interviews the day after he turned 26 was scuppered by Sophie Groves' thoughtfulness. "So sorry but tomorrow is my birthday and the mrs has made plans for us," Groves messaged me on 25 March. "That means I've got a lot to catch up with on Thursday. I could do Friday at 12pm if that's ok? Apologies for the late reschedule."

The polite tone was typical Groves – and so it seemed unsurprising that our Twickenham interview should be followed by a primary school play. "I like to support Sophie," Groves said. "She's worked hard on this. It's just a little weird because I'll be the only one there that's not a parent – but I sit at the back."

Does he get recognised? "The kids know who I am and their parents do a double-take. It can be funny because Sophie hears them say: 'I saw George Groves on TV last night.' They won't say I saw Mrs Groves' husband."

Groves reconciles these opposing worlds – the sweetness of being the husband to a young teacher whom he met when they went to nursery school together – opposed to the prickly machinations of the fight game as he strives to get under the skin of a world champion who wants to hurt him badly. "It's easy because Sophie's been with me a long time and she allows me to live a normal life."

It is always more difficult for a fighter's partner in the agonising buildup to a contest this intense. But Groves was emphatic that his wife would control the worry that must spread inside her. "She's supremely confident in me. I remember before I fought James DeGale [his first big fight, in May 2011] Sophie said DeGale was terrible and I had to explain that, actually, 'He's not bad.' She kept saying: 'No, no, he's terrible.'

"The first time I fought Carl was different. It was more a case of me telling her that Carl was terrible. She took Froch much more seriously but she was like, 'OK, I've heard you going on about this fight for years so ... I'm fine.' When I know what's going to happen she's at ease. The bigger the fight, the more comfortable I am. So is everybody else – apart from dad and mum."

When I first interviewed Groves, early in 2011, he suggested that, in regard to his parents, "I've aged them. Dad goes into his shell and he's very quiet before a fight."

Three years on, how is his dad coping with the stress of the rematch? Groves laughed softly. "You realise it's a big fight because I go around to my mum and dad's place and all they want to talk about is what was said in this or that paper. I say: 'Gee, Dad, you don't need to read me that extract from the Fulham Chronicle.' In his old age he's getting animated. Maybe it's the pressure or the fact he's semi-retired and has too much time to obsess about boxing. He's a painter and decorator but work dried up and he's 60 now so I don't want him climbing up and down building sites any more. I tell him: 'Don't worry, Dad, we've got it under control.'

"Mum takes it more to heart. I tell her not to worry about me being the bad guy. Before the first fight she said: 'I'm worried you're going to get booed.' I said: 'Mum, don't worry – I am going to get booed. But they'll cheer me at the end.' I just didn't expect them to cheer me that much. But she's the one going back and forth to Sainsbury's and people stop her and probably want to say: 'Your son's a right arrogant p***k, isn't he?' But everyone is being lovely about me now."

Groves sipped his water and grinned, as unruffled as he had been for much of a coolly storming display in the first fight. He dropped the champion in the opening round and dominated Froch so convincingly it was a shock when, even though Groves was hurt, the referee stopped the bout prematurely in the ninth. Much had since been made of Froch's ability, with a psychologist's help, to control his emotions in a way he once found impossible. But Froch still snapped during a Wembley photo-shoot.

"All it took was for me to say: 'Hold it together, Carl,'" Groves remembered as, unsettled by a challenger who is 10 years younger, Froch shoved him angrily. "I didn't say anything about Carl or insult his family. I just asked him to hold it together."

Groves pointed out that few people know he has a brother and a sister. In contrast, Froch's brothers, Lee and Wayne, are the champion's loud companions. Their building business is bolstered by the boxer's financial clout and after that Wembley shove, Lee Froch confronted Groves. As he headed off to the less-spiteful school play Groves told me he had since received various texts from Lee Froch – and he made clear his dislike for a family without the same low-key attitude as his own.

The weeks pass and it's not always easy to meet Groves for the next interview. His training intensifies and the sheer size of the occasion takes hold the closer we get to a fight that will be watched by 80,000 at Wembley and millions more on pay-per-view. When we talk again his attention locks on to Froch. "Only Carl knows whether he's calm or not," Groves says. "But if he needs to put energy into creating the perception of calm, that's still wasted energy. I know there've been times when he's felt good and he has done a much better job than before. We had a meeting on Ringside [Sky's boxing programme] and [the documentary series] Behind the Ropes and he felt very good. But why did he feel good? He might need to double-check I'm not allowing him to feel good.

"The following day we went to a Facebook interview and by the end there were visible sweat rings under his arms. His mouth was dry. So even if he seems to be holding it together, it's taking so much energy. At Facebook he showed up thinking he had cracked it but very soon he realised he hadn't. There are many layers to what I bring to the fight both in and outside the ring."

Groves has enjoyed trying to unsettle Froch through a variety of stunts. He began with a cheesy touch, producing a Rubik's Cube at the opening press conference and then repeating allusions to the number 6 and his "Everything for a reason" mantra. "The Rubik's Cube was a bit of a laugh," he says. "With these scenarios I like to see what pans out because Carl's definitely a thinker. He will sit and stew about it and try to understand what it means. And he never will. When it comes to the number 6 Carl doesn't even get it when I explain it coldly and clearly. That's because he's no longer humble. He's a self-elected international superstar. It's dangerous to put yourself on that pedestal."

The number 6 is also a reference to the end of the sixth round of their first fight when Froch sat on his stool and said "f**k me". Froch has claimed it was simply surprised exasperation that he had allowed himself to be tagged so often in that round. Groves shakes his head. "It seems strange he was surprised after six rounds. You're halfway through a fight by then. He said 'f**k me' because he was out of his depth. He has too much respect for [Froch's trainer] Rob McCracken to say: 'f**k me, Rob, why didn't you tell me he was this good? Why aren't I prepared for this?'"

Froch might have looked ponderous but he proved the depth of his fighting heart to force a stoppage that still rankles with Groves. "When that first bell goes I'm going to take it as the start of round 10 – because that first fight isn't over."

In our final interview I ask Groves to describe his mood just days before the fight. "I'm even more excited this time. All the weight problems are gone and you're in fight zone. You're fit and ready to hurt people. Sparring has been really good and I'm almost holding back. I don't need to sharpen the knife any more – otherwise it might break."

Froch is iron-willed and Groves concedes that, "There's no quit in him. That's for sure. So it's not going to be easy. But Carl's still very insecure. You can't say that about me. I'm supremely confident and it borders on arrogance. On fight night I feel alive and full of tingles. You feel your blood flow hot but that's how we like it. We're mammals, we're warm-blooded creatures."

We seem a long way from a sunny day in April but I still ask Groves about the school play. "Yeah, it was OK," he remembers. "Apparently I told Sophie there wasn't enough singing. But it was good to be there for her. Sophie and the whole family are here for me. I go past my mum's on the way to the gym – and I pop in for the loo or a cup of tea. It's very normal."

As the fight moves like a juggernaut towards him and Froch, normality is obliterated. It will be a wild night as Groves' intelligence and composure are tested by Froch's resolve and malice. There will be no time to think of school plays, Rubik Cubes and cups of tea. Will the coolness of Groves, a much more subtle operator than Froch's self-styled "warrior", withstand the brutality?

"People look at me and think: 'He's completely punching above his weight.' They say I'm gonna get knocked out or I can't hit hard. But fighters get in the ring with me and they're never the same afterwards. Look at DeGale – he's won fights since I beat him but he's never been the same. It's the same with Froch. Everyone will see the repercussions of the last fight in this next fight."

Does Groves allow himself to visualise the moment of victory? "It's a really good question. Sometimes I imagine it and I catch myself. Two years ago I was scheduled to fight for a world title and I was thinking of my pay-rise and walking around with the belt. I then busted my nose. The fight was off. So you need to appreciate what you've got – and wait for what you've not quite got. Once I've got that world title I'll never want to lose it. I'll fight tooth and nail to keep it. But, first, I will win it."

Week after week the same conviction has flowed through Groves. Saturday night will be a new experience, far beyond the routines of daily life, but he seems primed for an extraordinary occasion. "Ultimately, it's down to the individual. Some people are born to perform. Some people need to work hard to control themselves. I like to keep my normal life under wraps but in front of 80,000 people, I'm going to perform. I'm going to beat Carl Froch."

[Hotshot Hamish]

I hope Groves knocks him out. I find it very hard to like anything about Froch.

[Atticus_Finch]

A wee bit of info from the weigh in for any of you lads that enjoy a punt.

Kevin Mitchell has had an absolute nightmare in terms of preparation ahead of his undercard fight with Ghislain Maduma.

He was opened up in sparring, the cut was still very visible yesterday. It would not take much to open it up. In addition to that Maduma looked in top condition, looked a lot bigger than Mitchell who did not even make weight.

The fight is still going ahead but I don't think it will no longer be considered an eliminator, the winner was going to get a title shot against Vasquez.

In short Mitchell's preparation has looked far from ideal. I would be very surprised if this fight goes the distance. I think Maduma to win by stoppage is not an unlikely outcome.

[bridgegael]

i follow mitchell on twitter, he was giving the impression all went well in traing and he was in great shape.  he has had his issues before so i thought this fight would be a turning point for him.  if he didnt make weight,  that tellsit own story.

[tyroneboi]

I thought he made weight but then was over the check weight this morning? Not sure what this will mean in terms of his actual performance tonight I'm sure atticus would know more about it than me?

[Milltown Row2]

5/4 for a Froch stoppage, id this the general idea, doubt it will go the distance as they will go hammer and tongs

Groves is a great price around the late rounds, 8/9 rounds is great value for a couple of quid

[J OGorman]

5/4 for a Froch stoppage, id this the general idea, doubt it will go the distance as they will go hammer and tongs

Groves is a great price around the late rounds, 8/9 rounds is great value for a couple of quid

4 time world champion Carl Froch 'is out of his depth' according to Commonwealth champion St George.  Put the house on Groves ;-)