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When Boxing Returned to Wembley: Carl Froch vs. George Groves II, 2014
The announcing of returns bouts does not tend to surprise: we know the fighters, the result of their first bout, and whether that initial meeting had led to any controversy.
But the announcement for the return fight between Carl Froch and George Groves managed somehow to overshadow the debate over the stoppage in their first meeting: the pair were to meet, once more, but this time at Wembley Stadium.
Big-stadium shows are common in 2025. Later this month, Oleksandr Usyk and Daniel Dubois will face each other at Wembley. Dubois knocked out Joshua there, while Joshua stopped Klitschko and Povetkin there. As did Tyson Fury against Dillian Whyte in 2022 Over at Tottenham, Eubank Jr and Benn met there in April, Fury fought Chisora at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, too. Joshua fought Usyk there, too, but in 2021.
They were just the fights in London, but recent years have seen others: Callum Simpson and Ivan Zucco in Barnsley, Fabio Wardley and Justis Huni in Ipswich, Tony Bellew and Ilunga Makabu at Goodison.
But it took a special soul in 2014 to promote a fight at Wembley Stadium. Not even Hatton had tried it, having his own stadium show up in Manchester in 2008, beating Juan Lazcano on points over twelve rounds at the City of Manchester Stadium.
No one had tried for Wembley Stadium in years, not since 1995 at the old Wembley when Frank Bruno outpointed WBC champion Oliver McCall. And even that had been six years after the last Wembley show, when Bruno had lost by stoppage to Tim Witherspoon for the WBA title.
Lennox Lewis had not tried it. His only stadium show in the UK was in Cardiff. And when he did fight at Wembley – in 1991 and 1994 – he did so at the arena next door.
Even when Mike Tyson came to the UK, he did not fight at Wembley. Instead, he fought in Glasgow and in Manchester.
So it was with a flourish that Eddie Hearn and Matchroom revealed that the return between Froch and Groves would at Wembley.
It was another twist in a saga that had drawn interest for years.
Froch, 31-2 (22), was the WBC super-middleweight champion of the world, having gone through the fire of the Super Six World Boxing Classic, losing in the final to Andre Ward. Along the way, he had taken victories over Andre Dirrell, Arthur Abraham, and Glen Johnson, losing on points to Mikkel Kessler (a loss later revenged).
In fact, there was - and remains – an argument that Froch had the greatest run of fights of any British fighter. Between 2007 and 2014, he took on Robin Reid, Albert Rybacki, Jean Pascal, Jermain Taylor, Dirrell, Kessler, Abraham, Johnson, Ward, Lucian Bute, Yusaf Mack, and Kessler (again). In those fights, Froch went 10-2 against opponents with a combined record of 376-30-6. Or, on average, a record of around 31-3-1.
It was an extraordinary run, remarkable as well because much of Froch’s career within the Super Six took place without the benefit of British television. There was, apparently, no space there for Froch at the time.
The Super Six had ended for Froch with the loss to Ward. So he came home to Nottingham, where he was treated as the b-side to the Canada-based Romanian Bute. But then Froch walked through him in five rounds, taking something deep out of him; and through Mack in three. He fought Kessler after that, and won this time, on points over twelve rounds. It was a Fight of the Year.
It was then that the first Groves fight was made. Not in Nottingham, but in Manchester. Too big for the Ice Arena, but not big enough for a stadium. This time for the IBF and WBA super-middleweight titles.
It also seemed like a step down for Froch – a fight against a good domestic opponent and a formerly good amateur, one who might be a future champion but not yet. Groves was only 19-0 (15) and had only fought a handful of recognisable names – Glen Johnson, outpointed over twelve two years before; Paul Smith, stopped in two in 2011; James DeGale, a tight majority decision in 2011.
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The pair needled each other in the buildup. Froch said that Groves’s chin could not stand up to his power, that he only needed one punch.
“One punch? Is that all you need, Carl?” Groves said dismissively. He snorted. “He won’t hear the final bell.”
There was a chance for Groves to impress in that first Froch fight, and he took it, poleaxing the champion in the first round. Froch, the man with the granite chin, was suddenly more vulnerable than ever before. Not even Jermain Taylor had been able to knock him down with such force.
It was Groves who was faster, and it was Froch who looked hesitant. He threw and tried to make it into a fight, but Groves would defend and counter, defend and counter.
But he began to slow, and the punches from Froch began to thud through. In the ninth, Groves wobbled and then he gripped, and he grabbed, looking to find some respite. He went to the ropes and a punch came through, and Groves came off the ropes to fight back.
The referee, Howard Foster, stopped the fight. It was immediately controversial.
It called for an immediate rematch. Six months later, they went to Wembley.
There was less drama in the second fight. There was bit more show with a few more fireworks, longer walks to the ring, more staring before the bell.
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Froch seemed more focused for the second fight as if the first were a warning that he had heeded. Groves tried to use his speed, and he had a few good rounds, but he looked less like the man running ahead that he had been in the first fight and more an equal competitor.
The end came in the eighth round, and it was more decisive than in the first fight. A full stop, not a comma.
Froch threw a looping left hook to Groves’s head and, as his opponent moved to block it, Froch threw his right hand down the middle.
Groves went down, unconscious, like a man who had had his legs swept from under him. He landed awkwardly, one of those legs twisted uncomfortably beneath him. His synapses flew back into animation a second or so later, and he rolled to get up but found himself blocked by the body of the referee.
The fight was over. Groves would go on to win a world title, the WBA one in 2017 that he defended three times, then lost the following year. He retired after that with a 28-4 (20) record.
For Froch, that right hand that ended his second fight against Groves would prove to be the last thrown punch of his career. He retired with a 33-2 (24) record, although the purists wanted to see a second fight against Jean Pascal and a trilogy ender with Mikkel Kessler.
The ‘Cobra’ has made some noises about fighting ever since and seems to be called out – or call out – people on a regular basis. Darren Till has Froch in his crosshairs, and Froch has responded in kind.
If Ricky Hatton can make a comeback around the same age (Hatton is 46, Froch is 48), it seems that one day we may see the ‘Cobra’ strike again.
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