George Groves has said Tyson Fury could put Anthony Joshua away “in the first three rounds” of their super-fight in Cardiff.
On 11 December, Fury and Joshua will headline at Principality Stadium in a heavyweight clash that is almost a decade in the making.
The Britons are both former two-time world champions, with Fury entering the bout at 38 years old, while “AJ” is 37. In that regard, many fans feel the fight is much too late, yet it could still deliver enthralling action when it airs live on Netflix.
Joshua and the “Gypsy King” have both been floored numerous times in their careers, with AJ having to climb off the canvas twice in round one this July, before he stopped relative unknown Kristian Prenga in round two.
That bout played out one day after Fury beat a 46-year-old Mariusz Wach in Thailand, in a bout that was broadcast nowhere. While Fury was not especially impressive in that seven-round win, he should be the clear favourite against Joshua, Groves said.
“You’ve got to pick Fury as a solid favourite,” the retired world champion, 38, told Grosvenor Sport. “Once he lands on Joshua, I think he knocks him out.
“It’s too much of a big-pressure fight for them to pull one another around and get rounds. The second Joshua gets clipped on the chin, I think he’s going to go over.
“Fury is too big. He’s not necessarily heavy-handed, but if he’s coming in the ring at 19-plus stone and throws a couple of solid shots and starts finding his range, I think he hurts Joshua.
“I think he stops him. It might be really early; I think there’s a strong possibility that this fight is over in the first three rounds.”
Fury vs Joshua will play out in front of approximately 80,000 fans, a similar number to the attendance for Groves’s rematch with Carl Froch in 2014. After a controversial stoppage by Froch in their first fight, in 2013, Groves was finished by his fellow Briton again in the rematch at Wembley Stadium.
Groves’s losses to his fierce rival were the first of his professional career, and they saw him fail to win the IBF and WBA super-middleweight belts. However, Groves realised his world-title dream in 2018, outpointing Chris Eubank Jr to capture the IBO strap.
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