George Groves and Chris Eubank Jr know each other well. Former sparring partners, the Manchester Arena on February 17th, will see the two orthodox, super middleweight fighters face off in the semi-final of the WBSS {World Boxing Super Series}. Groves will be defending his WBA {World Boxing Association} world title in the division. And he, inevitably, sees Eubank as not being on his level.
Publicly, at least, Groves has said as much. Following yesterday’s announcement, Groves stated that he believes Eubank has never boxed anyone like him. In fact he sees the fact that they have shared the ring so many times behind closed doors as an advantage. That Eubank knows what he’s up against.
Privately though, Groves knows that Eubank is as formidable an opponent as he has met. And realistically, Groves won’t underestimate him for a minute. Last month, Jamie Cox brought intensity and determination to the table and Groves didn’t undervalue his opponent, stopping Cox in the fourth round, in a fight that was far from easy. But Groves respected his opponent. He won’t switch kilter in February. Eubank will be afforded the same respect.
Groves had hoped for the bout to be held in London, possibly Craven Cottage, home of Fulham football club. However, organisers have insisted the fight will happen in Manchester. Not that you would think either fighter will be overtly perturbed by this. Although the city has more history for Groves who lost his IBF and WBA titles to Carl Froch in the same location four years ago.
@StGeorgeGroves stopping Cox last month!
Eubank comes into this on the back of a second successful defence of his IBO {International Boxing Organisation} title. He travelled to Germany last month to face Turkish boxer Avni Yildirim in Stuttgart. His pace and power were too much for his opponent, who was undefeated up until that point. But Eubank was so ferocious in the third round that his formidable opponent was never going to see the fourth.
Eubank stated that, just as had just shown in the ring, he was here to dominate the tournament. “I'm sending a message out there that I'm coming. George Groves, get through your next fight so we can give the boxing fans what they want to see. I think it's going to be exactly the same as what we saw tonight. I'm not playing anymore.”
Well Groves did come through. The winner will face the winner of the other semi-final, where Liverpool fighter Callum Smith is to square up against Germany’s Jurgen Braehmer. And after all that, the winner of the WBSS is most likely to have little time to dwell on their achievements, with IBF super-middleweight title holder James DeGale, wanting to face the overall winner.
What a unification fight potentially lays in wait. DeGale though, has to deal with American Caleb Truax first. And Groves and Eubank Jr, similarly, will be focused solely on the next task in hand. The mind games will continue aplenty on social media. Why not? But both men will be wholly focused.
