What a fantastic bit of story-telling in the Froch/Groves fight. Not to say it was a work but this seems this was latter day WCW all over.
You start of with the world champion, loved by all. Then you have this arrogant young kid talking smack (obviously trying to sell the fight as much as he was trying to get into Froch's head.)
From the moment Groves steps out into the arena, he's heeling it up. Soaking up the boo's from the audience and doesn't show that he's phased in the slightest. Then Froch comes out to rapturous cheers from the Manchester crowd.
The fight starts and the first thing that jumps into my mind is how quickly Groves goes on the attack. Froch had been goading him before the fight to "come and meet me in the middle of the ring." Groves didn't just do that but he hounded Froch around the squared circle. Then Groves starts to land punches, the echoes of his pre-match promises start to ring around me head "I'm gunna hit you with 2 right's in the 1st round, just to show you I can"
The early round are dominated by Groves where he shows both impressive attacking boxing and excellent defensive ducking and weaving. Froch comes back into it for a couple of rounds then...DAT STOPPAGE.
Everyone is in an uproar, the referee calls a stoppage to the fight without Groves ever being knocked off his feet. Sure, there's probably some technicality that will cover the referee's back here but it was a nonsense decision. This is boxing and when you pay to see a fight (and when you're paid to fight) you expect a clear out-come (or the fight to at least go the distance.) Of course, neither happened. This was the equivalent of seeing an underdog football team go 1-0 up and then as soon as the favourite gets the equaliser, the referee calls an end to the game and says "well, they were going to come back and hammer you, so I thought I'd save everyone's time. The favourites win" Sure, you can talk about the dangerous involved with boxing...but that conversation is not one to be had in the middle of a match where 1 guy has dominated for a mere couple of seconds.
Post-match and Groves is distraught, Froch meanwhile is being paraded around the ring as if some kind of hero who's just slayed the dragon. Firstly Froch ignores Groves' handshake, then he does a post-match talk where he goes into self-promotion mode, talking about how his punches are so dangerous and how Groves was lucky to have had the match ended, otherwise he would have done him some serious damage. He then takes all the blame from himself, not wanting to become the bad guy and shifts it onto the referee saying it's his decision. Of course, it is the referee's decision but take some of the credit if you did deserve to win.
Coming out of it, the double-turn is complete, Groves is cheered by the audience and Froch is booed. Froch comes across as the arrogant champion, who's trying desperately to be liked by the fans whilst Groves is the heroic warrior, robbed by an overly keen referee and a cowardly champion, willing to take the win however he can.
How gratifying can it be? Being the champion, when nobody else believes you should be.