I've just watched it on TV & I have to say, Groves looked ever more dominant watching it on TV.

Watching Groves, you can see where his inspiration lies; he fights very much like Sugar Ray Leonard.

If only he had the stamina of the great Sugar Ray, he would have would not have got stopped by the referee, however, I have to revise my earlier opinion as I hadn't seen it on TV at that stage.

The referee was premature & I hope he doesn't ref another fight again.

I really feel for Groves; to put on a performance of that magnitude, only for it to be spoilt by the referee.

There absolutely has to be a rematch & I believe that Froch would want it too, as he is the ultimate warrior himself.

Errm, you might want to tell this bloke first (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ultimate_warrior) before claiming such a thing!

oh for gods sake, dont start ruining this thread as well with your nonsense

Youve made it perfectly clear elsewhere you dont like boxing, why not just leave the discussion for others and go talk about your wrestling or ufc somewhere else.

Pacquiao was much better last night. More about fighting his opponent than trying to put on a show for the crowd.

Apparently the guy with the best view of Groves's eyes at the time of the stoppage was the Sky cameraman who was filming that angle . He said on the radio that the guy's eyes were clear as a bell and he was 100% ok to carry on .

Still can't believe he stopped it when he did .

It was only a play on words!

A much as I think Froch was lucky last night, I do think a lot of people are underestimating what a performance he put in.

Dropped early and would have been gone if there was longer on the clock. Constantly rocked with big rights and his face peppered with left jabs.

How he stayed in the fight is amazing. Lesser champs would have been beaten.

Froch is a true warrior with a fantastic chin and amazing stamina and does deserve credit for the win.

Only way to settle the debates though is a rematch.

Think the result would be different this time though.

Imo, Groves was gone. He'd dropped his hands and moved forward off the ropes. If the ref hadn't stopped it, Froch would have had a free swing, loaded up and knocked him.
Yes, the stoppage was premature, but only by a punch or two at the most.

I think Groves missed his big chance last night. Froch was the worst i've ever seen him and looked every one of his 37 years, yet Groves still couldn't put him away, or at least coast to an easy win.
Real quality young fighters don't lose to old fighters when they are there for the taking!

Who knows what would have happend. For all we know Groves takes a 8, gets to the end of the round then keeps Froch at bay with the jab.

Groves was only turned by the ref, looked to me like he was ducking under the shots to try and clinch, but the ref got ahold of him first.

Not the first time this ref has stopped a fight early without good reason.

If you use the same criteria for stopping the fight when it was to Froch it should have been stopped in rounds 1, 4 and 6

And there is Froch warrior tag helping him out.

Groves is known as chinney, so first sign of a struggle the ref stops it.

Imo I think Groves should be happy he will get a rematch, i think he has a much better chance of winning a rematch than he did of winning that match last night.

He had his chance early, but could not put Froch away when it got into the 9th, I had a feeling Groves's chance to win had gone.

Just watched the Froch vs. Groves fight. A real shame the ref didn't let it go on a bit longer. I'm of the opinion, like a few other people, that Froch probably would have KO'd Groves as Groves looked to be tiring badly but we'll never know.

Also, I don't subscribe to the theory that Froch was hurt just as badly at times during the fight (except the 1st round but Froch had time to recover). I think the difference was that Froch was taking one or two shots at a time whereas at the end, Groves was taking quite a few big shots and the ref obviously thought he was taking too much and it was getting dangerous. He really should have let it go on longer though as Groves was hardly dead on his feet at that point and there was a chance he would recover.

Groves was brilliant but you've also got to give credit to Froch for his toughness. His defence was crap as usual but his strength, stamina and granite chin got him through again. Would love to see a rematch .

As the promoter is all for a rematch presumably all of us who paid £15 and were robbed will bet it for free next time .

I couldn't agree more.

People are so angry about the referee's actions that they've completely lost sight of what Froch managed to achieve.

He suffered a very heavy knockdown in the first round and barely made it to the bell and then took a one sided beating for the next 6 rounds.

At that point he looked old, slow and on his way to being stopped for the first time in his career and seemed to be totally lost in there with no idea what to do. I couldn't see any way he could possibly get into the fight at all.

Yet over the next couple of rounds he just came to life, let the punches go and started to bully Groves a little and managed to trap him against the ropes a few times. I don't know where he found that strength and determination, but he showed a true champion's heart and will to win. He basically managed to turn the fight on its head in the space of 2 rounds and he undoubtedly had Groves quite badly hurt.

Had the fight continued I do believe that Froch would have stopped Groves. Groves had expended so much energy and was clearly fading and tiring badly. I just can't see how he would have got through another 3 rounds with Froch really starting to apply some serious pressure.

Personally, I think Froch should retire. He looked very old last night and all those hard fights he's had caught up with him. He's spent his whole career basically blocking punches with his face and it showed against Groves. He's got nothing to prove and there are no other big fights out there for him apart from Groves. He was outclassed by Ward so another fight with him would be pointless.

As a spectator it looked like Groves made two fatal errors that cost him the fight. Number one was letting Froch off the hook when he was out in round 1, although he didn’t get much time to finish him. Number two was Groves mistake of brawling with Froch in the later rounds and completely abandoning his fight plan. The brawling I believe would have lead to a TKO even if the ref didn’t stop it early. I think Froch won this fight legit but I am convinced Groves would win a rematch because if it wasn’t for getting sucked into the brawling he would have won. I guess there is also the question of his stamina but you would think if he paced him self better next time out its possible he could finish strong enough to keep Froch away to a safe points win. He did the macho stuff this time, he should be more sensible in the rematch, much like Holyfield v Bowe 2

Regarding Froch, I thought he looked spooked in the ring before the fight. He looked pretty bloody nervous to me. Maybe he realised he was the one under pressure to annihilate Grove’s and if he didn't do that he would be considered a failure. Groves in contrast looked very confident, his games worked a treat. Froch is a great champion, I believe this because he shouldn't have won the fight. Great fighters manage to win when they shouldn’t. I don’t think he was shot either, I believe he was pretty much knocked out in round 1 and it took him most of the fight to recover. How he got up from that punch is unimaginable, but he did and deserves full credit for coming back to win, which I think he would have, only because Groves Gave it away by being a bit silly.

So Groves lost this fight in my opinion, he abandoned his fight plan and got into a macho war with Froch that became his undoing. But I believe Groves wins the rematch. I wonder if Froch will go there though, I wouldn't say he would duck Groves but I think he will justify a way of going another route. I do think Froch is a great champion but as a person he can be a bit of an arse, it wouldn't surprise me if he froze George out.

This may sound crazy BUT at the end when they were both sat outside the ring telling their side of the story .... they were both fit and rested and agreeable to a rematch ...... it's a pity they just couldn't get back in the ring for another 3 rounds or something and save everyone a lot of money and hastle.

This fight does show that Froch was very lucky Joe C never actually got him in the ring, although I never doubted what the outcome would have been.

You could say that but then again Froch is very good at turning a fight into a war. Froch's defence has always been pretty bad and Groves exploited it brilliantly but it's not the first time Froch has turned a fight into a slugfest and won with his strength and stamina.

I guess that's what Groves has to work on with his next fight plan, he got everything else bang on apart from getting drawn into a war and I agree Froch does make that difficult to avoid when he puts the pressure on. But if Groves continued the way he had in earlier rounds, ducking sliding and landing huge counters, Froch would have been neutralized. It seemed that he ran out of steam a bit, which he seems to be known for. Hopefully he can address this with better pacing.

Groves tried too hard to get Froch out of there and he got caught, he didnt need to do that and its probable they will watch the mistakes he made and come up with a full proof way to beat Froch. I think Froch's team know this so I wonder about the rematch, but then again I wonder if Froch;s pride can take people accusing him of running scared.

JC would have bored everyone to death with his powder puff taps, and gone on to a landslide points win.

I'd watch the car-park slugging Froch, anytime over the calculating JC, who never went near any of the best when they were at their peaks, and for very good reason!

Come on, that's a bit harsh on Calzaghe. Do you not remember this? - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pX0_b...utu.be&t=1m22s

Didn't Calzaghe have continual problems with broken hand(s) during his career?....which probably meant he became more careful. But yes, he almost certainly would have been too clever for Froch and had immense stamina himself so that wouldn't have been a problem.

All FW fighters back in the day were very carefully matched.

Not too many faught the best, and if they did were found out.

Not true at all!

JC was obsessed about keeping an anbeaten record, rather than take on the best around at the time.
Froch is 'old school' and would fight anyone, anytime, anywher to try and be the best.

Roy Jones took on the unbeaten, and feared James Toney, when Toney was at his absolute peak and before many thought Jones was ready for him.
Jones won every minute of every round. He went on to thrash Hopkins as well.
Took on the number one rated light heavy champ and destroyed him in 2 rounds etc etc etc.

Go right back to Leonard, Duran, Hearns. They all took big chnaces against the best at their best.
Ali did the same, as did many others.

Carl Froch reminds me of The Terminator; fearless, remorseless & relentless.

It doesn't matter how much hurt you put on him, he never stops coming, ever.

He's like a modern day Matthew Saad Muhammad.

The only thing is, I hope Froch knows when to quit, unlike Saad, who fought on long after his remarkable ability to absorb punishment & come back had left him.