George Groves (26-3, 19 KOs) paid a heavy price in his recent 6th round knockout win over Fedor Chudinov (14-2, 10 KOs) in suffering a broken jaw in winning the WBA Super World super middleweight title last Saturday night on May 27 at Bramall Lane, in Sheffield, England. Groves and Chudinov were fighting on the undercard of the Kell Brook vs. Errol Spence Jr. fight card.
Groves-Chudinov didn’t live up to the billing. The fight was only briefly entertaining. After the 1st round, it was pretty much all one-way traffic with Groves having his way.
Groves took a lot of shots from Chudinov in the first round. The Russian fighter was tagging him with heavy punches to the head. Groves looked like he was shaken up in round 1 after getting nailed with a hard right hand to the head. If I was to guess when Groves suffered a broken jaw in the fight, I would think it occurred in the 1st round. That’s where Groves took a big head shot from Chudinov.
Chudinov came into the fight having been out of the ring for 1 ½ years, and having lost his last fight. I couldn’t quite understand what Chudinov had done to deserve a fight for a world title. Just the loss alone in his last fight should have been enough for Chudinov not to be given the title shot. But for him to have been out of the ring for nearly 2 years, it didn’t make sense or him to be fighting Groves for the WBA Super World 168lb title.
The 29-year-old Groves will need surgery on his jaw to repair his injury. The recovery time from the surgery and subsequent rehabilitation will keep Groves on the shelf for a considerable amount of time.
This was the 4th time in the last 4 years that Groves was allowed to fight for a world title. Groves had lost two times to Carl Froch and once to Badou Jack in failed world title challenges.
“#PreOpPic It turns out I only went and broke my jaw in the 3rd round on Saturday, that or broke it from over smiling since! #WorthIt,” Groves said Groves on his Twitter.
It’s quite probable that Groves will be out of action for the remainder of 2017. That’s not the type of news that Groves’ loyal boxing fans wanted to hear, as they were hoping that he would fight IBF super middleweight champion James DeGale in a rematch straightaway in a unification match. If two British super middleweights are going to fight each other now, then it means that it will need to wait until 2018 unless Groves has a miraculous recovery from the broken jaw and surgery.
DeGale is a shaky champion, and he could very well lose his next fight, especially if that fight comes against WBA interim super middleweight champion Andre Dirrell. The International Boxing Federation is has to decide whether to let Jose Uzcategui get a rematch with Dirrell, who he lost to on May 20 after being disqualified for knocking him out after bell had sounded ending the 8th. It’s extremely doubtful that the IBF will let Uzcategui get a second fight with Dirrell, considering that twice in the fight he hit him after the bell.
Groves’ fight against Chudinov was the perfect situation for him, as the Russian fighter was very slow of hand and foot. Chudinov didn’t look skilled. He was beaten to the punch all night long by Groves. In the 6th, Groves unloaded on Chudinov with a flurry of shots that had him hurt. The referee Steve Gracy jumped in and stopped the fight in the 6th round after Groves hurt Chudinov.
The fight was stopped at 1:14 of the round. My only criticism of the stoppage was the timing. Gray should have waited about 30 seconds to see if Chudinov would be able to get out of the round because he looked like he was still able to fight. It looked a little premature to me, but I wasn’t surprised by the stoppage. There are a lot of quick stoppages in fights nowadays. It’s becoming a norm where referees jump in after a fighter takes a few decent shots.
If Groves has to make a title defense before facing DeGale, it’ll be interesting to see who the World Boxing Association has him fight. Does the WBA let Groves fight a voluntary defense against an easy bottom feeder in the WBA’s top 15 rankings, or do they face him to fight someone with talent that could possibly knock him out like #3 WBA David Benavidez (18-0, 17 KOs). That would be very, very hard fight for Groves to take on a big puncher like Benavidez, who arguably is the hardest puncher in the 168 lb. division right now. Benavidez is only 20-years-old, but he’s got huge power for someone that young.
It’s scary to think about how good Benavidez will be in 4 or 5 years from now. I doubt that Groves will still be relevant in the 168 pound division by then. I think Benavidez would knockout Groves right now if the two of them face each other next. Benavidez recently stopped former world title challenge Rogelio Medina in an 8th round knockout win on May 20. This is the same Medina that DeGale struggled to beat by a 12 round unanimous decision last year in April 2016. DeGale took a lot of punishment to the head from Medina. Benavidez also knocked out Denis Douglin in the 10th round last year in August 2016. Groves stopped Douglin in the 7th round in November 2014, but he had a lot of problems with him in getting hurt along the way. Benavidez was never hurt by Douglin.
Groves beat DeGale by a controversial 12 round decision six years ago in 2011 in a fight that could have gone either way. Groves faded under the pressure from DeGale oi the second half of the fight, and this caused the fight to be closer than it otherwise would have. I had DeGale winning the fight. I thought he started rallying in round 6 and won the last 7 rounds. DeGale has improved a lot since that loss in winning 13 of 14 fights in the last 6 years. The only fight in which DeGale failed to get the ‘W’ was in his last fight against Badou Jack.
DeGale and Jack fought to a 12 round draw last January at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York. DeGale was cruising to victory in the 12th round when he was knocked down by Jack. DeGale got up and finished the fight, but he clearly had messed up his chance of getting the win.
It would be a pity if Groves’ broken jaw keeps him out of action for a long period of time, but that’s likely going to be the case. Coming back from a broken jaw isn’t easy to do. Fighters need time to head and then more time regain their confidence that their jaw is going to hold together. If Groves has to defend his WBA title against Benavidez in his first fight back, it would be bad for him. Groves likes to slug, and he would be the perfect style match-up for the American knockout artist. Benavidez is likely licking his chops after seeing how many head shots Groves took in the Chudinov fight.