Is George Groves Ready to Win a World Title After Beating Christopher Rebrasse?
A brass band played George Groves into the ring but the real brass was located somewhere inside Christopher Rebrasse's shorts as he stood up to 12 rounds of punishment and kept firing back.
The Englishman, 26, took a wide decision on all three judges' cards and despite the brave effort from the outgoing champion, there was hardly a clear round for him all night.
Thus George Groves won his first fight of 2014 at the second attempt to claim the European super-middleweight title and take his record to 20-2.
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On the one hand, Groves dominated the fight in the fashion you would expect but, on the other, he never came close to stopping his opponent, despite landing clean punches, especially in Round 10.
If you only had one word to describe Rebrasse prior to the fight it would be "unproven" so it is difficult to gauge too much from the contest, without a relevant yardstick of the Frenchman facing top opposition.
The Hammersmith man certainly looked a level above Rebrasse, who was a European champion, if a lightly regarded one, but you would perhaps expect a serious world-level hitter to dispose of a fighter who had never fought at that level and already had two draws and three losses on his record.
In the first fight with Carl Froch, when Groves hurt the indomitable champion, it suggested that he had developed into a genuine power-puncher and yet there was little evidence of that yesterday.
Now, it may be that Rebrasse is just freakishly tough, as was the last opponent who took Groves the distance, the 43-year-old Glen Johnson—it is true that the Frenchman has never been stopped.
Regardless of that, Groves did seem particularly lacking in his ability to impose sustained pressure on his over-matched foe, perhaps in part because he was consciously holding himself back from emptying his tank, as he did against Froch to great cost.
Groves did throw plenty of leather on the night but against a passive and static opponent who largely let him dictate the pace of proceedings.
He was still breathing heavily from quite early on and looked exhausted on his stool before the last round so his stamina will continue to be questioned.
The most worrying aspect of the fight for Groves was, providing the Sky Sports punch-counters can be trusted, that he landed just 17 percent of his punches. For comparison's sake, the inexact Marcos Maidana managed 22 percent last week against the elusive target of Floyd Mayweather.
At the highest level, Groves simply couldn't afford to waste that many shots, particularly when coupled with the energy-sapping nature of his herky-jerky style.
On the positive side, after the devastating knockout he suffered against Froch last time, it was good for Groves to be back in the ring looking confident and with no lasting damage, taking home the win and a regional title.
Even so, you would be hard pushed to rate last night's performance as much better than his late 2012 fight against Johnson, and any improvements suggested by the first Froch fight seem to have evaporated.
Groves is eager to get back into world-title contention but you wonder if he might be better to have another rebuilding fight first against better opposition.
There is a significant gap in quality between Froch, who inflicted his two defeats, and the aged Johnson and inexperienced James DeGale who remain his best wins. A fight with the likes of Sakio Bika or Edwin Rodriguez would bridge that gap and give him both meaningful experience and better preparation.
The win last night made Groves the mandatory challenger to the WBC champion Anthony Dirrell, who is the younger brother of Andre who fought a close fight with Froch in 2009.
The younger Dirrell is unbeaten aged 29 but looked less than spectacular when initially drawing with former champ Bika and then taking a decision last month in a competitive rematch.
Groves would start the favourite if the bout was held in England, something that Dirrell is adamant won't happen, telling the Daily Mail: "There's no way I'll be going to the UK. I'm the champ. If they make Groves the No. 1 contender then he's going to have to come here and try and beat me."
Given the large crowd the Englishman attracted to Wembley Arena Saturday he is clearly a much bigger live draw than Dirrell but American TV money may keep the fight in the US, which perhaps swings the odds in the Michigan man's favour.
You would probably expect Groves to win the early rounds with his speed—a quick KO might even be possible if he replicated his first Froch performance.
However, as the fight progresses and Groves tires you have to worry about his ability to take a shot later on. Given Dirrell has 22 KOs from 28 fights, even once decking Bika, he certainly has the power to change a fight.
If a deal with Dirrell could not be struck then the other obvious world-title option is WBO belt holder Arthur Abraham, with whom Groves shares a promoter in Kalle Sauerland.
Abraham faces British opposition in Germany next week against the mediocre Paul Smith, the Liverpool fighter who may not even be the best super-middleweight in his family.
At the top of the division, however, Groves showed nothing yesterday to worry division kingpin Andre Ward, who is yet to fight in 2014.
When Groves played gate-crasher extraordinaire against Froch in November it looked only a matter of time until he became a world champion.
On the basis of his last two performances it is now more a question of if than when—and the question of where may yet be the most important one.
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