On November 22nd, #1 WBC George Groves (22-2, 15 KOs) will be in action against southpaw Denis Douglin (17-3, 10 KOs) in a 12 round bout at the Echo Arena in Liverpool, UK. This fight is to get Groves ready for a title shot against the southpaw WBC super middleweight champion Anthony Dirrell in 2015.
Whether a guy in Douglin’s class can help Groves get ready for someone like Dirrell remains to be seen.
Groves wants to look good in this fight, and steal the spotlight from the headliner fight between Tony Bellew vs. Nathan Cleverly. It’s going to be tough for Groves to accomplish that if his fight turns out to be a one-sided mismatch. You have to realize that Douglin has been dominated by the likes of Jermell Charlo, Jose Angel Rodriguez and Doel Carrasquillo in the past.
Groves should be able to beat Douglin without problems. However, if he struggles to beat him like he did in his last fight against Christopher Rebrasse, then it’s going to make Groves look bad.
Douglin isn’t much of a puncher, and that obviously is a good thing for Groves, because the last thing he needs right now is to face someone with any of power. Groves was knocked out twice by IBF/WBA super middleweight champion Carl Froch. Groves then was given a lucky break when the World Boxing Council gave him the green light to fight in a WBC eliminator bout against Rebrasse, even though Groves had been knocked out in consecutive fights.
That kind of thing rarely occurs, because sanctioning generally don’t let fighters take part in eliminator bouts if they’ve lost two fights in a row by knockout, but they made an exception for Groves. It was fortunate for Groves that Rebrasse had little power to speak of, because if he’d had to face someone with punching power, we might not be talking about Groves right now.
Douglin has won his last three fights against Julius Kennedy, Orlando Membreno and Charles Whittaker. He’s never beaten a top level fighter, and he has very little chance of beating Groves. He’s just someone that is being brought in to make Groves look good. Let’s hope Groves can accomplish that, because he failed to impress against Rebrasse last September.
