This Saturday (September 20, 2014) popular British Super Middleweight George Groves returns to the ring to face Christopher Rebrasse. Groves, who has lost back to back fights to Carl Froch, is looking for a win to right the ship, and he is a (-1700) favorite over the Frenchman Rebrasse, who returns at (+1100). Groves fought a pair of fights with Froch that will be remembered. Froch, who is one of the top ranked Super Middleweights in the world, earned a controversial stoppage in the first fight after 9 hard fought rounds, and he more definitively stopped Groves in the 8th of their second meeting. But Groves earned more respect and popularity in those wins, and this fight with Rebrasse represents a return to winning for Groves. The fight is for a vacant WBC Silver title. Rebrasse will also be bringing his European (EBU) title and he is coming off an emotional two-fight series of his own against Mouhamed Ali Ndiaye that left him with the European championship. They fought to a draw the first time for the vacant title, and Rebrasse scored the TKO win to retain the belt. Despite that stoppage, Rebrasse has not been an especially big puncher, earning six KO wins in his 22-2-3 overall record. Ndiaye is a Senegalese whose 23-2-1 record is largely built up on the Italian fighting circuit, and for Rebrasse, the two fights with Ndiaye in Italy represented his first international experience. While Groves has been born and bred in the UK, where the level of boxing is much higher than on the rest of the continent, and he is coming off a headlining performance against Carl Froch that filled Wembley Stadium’s 60,000 seats. Rebrasse’s fights at the Pontedera en Tuscany were unlikely to be in the atmosphere that he will face this Saturday. Groves is now in the Wembley Arena, where he can easily fill the 12,000 or so seats with rabid fans. The illustration of the difference in atmosphere and location of their recent fights is not where the differences end. Groves has gone 17 rounds with Carl Froch in his recent outings, and despite losing is very likely to come out the other end of that experience a much better and much more dangerous fighter. While Rebrasse also has improved after winning his tough series with Ndiaye, the differences between the levels at which both men were operating is chasm-like, and it will show Saturday night.
