George Groves downs Christopher Rebrasse to win European title

George Groves snapped a two-fight losing streak and picked up the European super middleweight title today with a win over Christopher Rebrasse, with the victory also giving Groves mandatory position for a shot at the WBC super middleweight title, held currently by Anthony Dirrell.

Groves (20-2, 15 KO) won on scores of 118-110, 118-110, and 117-111, outclassing Rebrasse (22-3-3, 6 KO) if not truly dominating. The 26-year-old Groves didn't seem to have his usual power in this fight, for whatever reason, but still landed plenty of good shots, which Rebrasse, 28, stood up to nicely over the course of the fight.

One could even argue, I suppose, that it was a bit of an underwhelming performance from Groves, still one of the better super middleweights in the world, against a mid-level fringe contender holding a regional title, but you have to give credit to Rebrasse for a game effort toward the upset, even though it was clearly beyond his grasp.

Will Groves look for that fight with Dirrell next? Probably. It might not happen, but unless Groves plans to move up in weight, there's little for him to do other than fight for a world title, which is still his ultimate goal. He could take a stay-busy European title defense next if the Dirrell fight won't materialize immediately, but it shouldn't be expected that he'll wait too long for that fight to come together.

On the undercard, Luke Campbell went to 8-0 (6 KO) with a seventh round TKO of Krzysztof Szot, and super flyweight prospect Khalid Yafai improved to 12-0 (9 KO) with a second round knockout of Herald Molina.