In one of the most eagerly anticipated domestic fights in the last ten years, George Groves proved to De Gale that his not balls over brains, with a tatical victory over his fearce rival.
All of the pre-fight build up, with the majority of the bad mouthing coming from the De Gale camp, had created alot of talk by pundits and joe public. From speaking to people myself, the majority thought that Groves was u
p against it, but hoped he could pull something out of the bag and shush the trash-talking, verging on arrogant De Gale, who we must remember, was only in his tenth professional fight, and had previously fought against come forward opponents.
After all the trash talking was over, it was time for business. And as it got closer to the 10.30 start time, the atmosphere in the o2 arena had reached boiling point and it resembled the kind of atmospheres that were created by the now iconic battles between Benn vs Eubank, fights that have been etched into my memory since I was a kid. As the two fighters entered the ring, it was clear that the crowd were on Groves' side, hoping that the "ugly ginger kid" would shut De Gale up.
Personally, I hoped that groves would shut De Gale up, but always feared that if he went into the fight with the same mentality as he did in the Kelly Anderson fight, then de gale would have been too clasy for him.
As the fight began one thing was clear, Adam Booth had a plan set out for beating De Gale, and it didn't involve having a tear up with him. Groves was fighting from the outside using a lot of lateral movement, looking for counter punches. In the early rounds, it was clear that Groves had out-thought De Gale, as even though De Gale controlled the centre of the ring, he never asserted himself with punches.
By the half way point in the fight, Adam Booth told Groves that De Gale had run out of ideas, and it seemed true. The second half of the fight was much closer however, with De Gale, shortening the distance between the two fighters and beginnig to land some cleaner punches.
The ninth round seemed to shows real signs that fight was back in De Gales court, as he landed a beautiful left on Groves, and then landed another good one-two before the end of the round, and Groves' guard had lowered, worrying signs that he was maybe reverting to type, which would of played right into De Gales hands.
However this was not this case as Groves piled the pressure back on to De Gale in the tenth, with a flurry of shots, and at this point De Gale seemed distracted by a cut, as he was constantly dabbing the blood away.
By the twelth round, it was clear that it was a close fight, with the feeling that De Gale needed a knockdown or a knockout to win the fight, and to be fair he tried to force the issue in the early exchanges, but Groves, refusing to be denied ended the round the stronger, caught De Gale with some heavy combinations.
It was an evenly-matched, sometimes non-event of a fight, James De Gale showed tatical inefficiencies that ultimately cost him the fight, albeit it only just on the scorecards.
A delighted Groves at the end added: “I showed that he can't beat me. I can't lose. I will not let anyone beat me. That's what I've got inside. I will always find an answer."
”No disrespect to James DeGale, I've trash-talked him far too much. He's a tremendous fighter."
Tonight was the ultimate case of a bark being louder that the bite. de gale never came out and imposed himself with punches. I'm not a boxing expert, I have never thought in my life (unless being heavyweight champion on fightnight 2011 counts) but even i could see that the uppercut should have been a puch that de gale should have tried to utilse more.
This was a very tense, evenly matched fight, that could easily be made to happen again. Frank Warren was in demand of a rematch. But I feel as though these two fighters have the potential to meet each other again in the future, and who knows, it could be with a world title at stake next time.
On a slightly lighter note there were three moments that tickled me during the broadcast.
1. Adam booth getting one up on De Gale, saying that he can "forget the bet". at the pre-fight press conference, de gale offered in a bet to cover groves' wage if he beat him.
2. De gale and his trainer celebrating when they heard "and still undefeated", forgetting that a Mr Groves was also undefeated going into the fight. looked slightly silly when the decision was awrded in groves' favour.
3. Frank warrens interview. his head was swaying from side to side so much you'd think he was watching a tennis match.
