GEORGE GROVES has been linked unexpectedly with Chris Eubank Jr, even though the idea never solidified into serious talks.
“I like Chris Eubank but at the end of day he’s a middleweight who rightly or wrongly is notorious for pulling out of fights with middleweights. So I certainly I wasn’t ready or prepared to sign up to fight,” Groves said. “So there was a lot of gaping holes in the offer that was made to us. It wasn’t from Eubank, it was from a separate promoter.
“It’s a fight that I’d love to take, I think it would be good for both of us. I think it’s a fight I’d win but it wasn’t right for us right now. But it’s certainly a fight that could happen down the line. People already seem pretty excited about it and nothing’s close to being signed. So it’s an option for the future.”
Eubank would have to come up to Groves’ division thought. “I’m a super-middleweight, I wouldn’t sacrifice anything to get any lower than 168lbs. I don’t need to. My division is good enough as it is, there are big fights out there for me, domestically and internationally and there’s big fights for me if I want to go up a weight. I’d much rather go up than down,” George continued.
He is fighting next on November 18 against Eduard Gutknecht at Wembley Arena, a bout that will be screen on Channel Five.
“Boxing on Channel 5 I think is just the right thing,” Groves said. “When the time comes for me to win a world title and defend it, I’ll make some waves. Fighting on terrestrial TV now, we’re going to put on a good show. It won’t be all razzmatazz and no boxing, it won’t be just boxing and no glitz and glamour to go with it. We’ll deliver the full package to get people excited about boxing again.”
His path to a world title has not run smooth but he has an International strap from the WBA and is highly placed in their super-middleweight rankings, although that body currently has both a ‘regular’ world title and a Super world title. “The WBA they’ve got two world champions and they’re looking to make that one world champion, doing that across all weight divisions. [Giovanni] Di Carolis versus [Tyron] Zeuge is happening again [for the regular strap] because the first fight was a draw. They want to make me versus Chudinov and then the winner of us two fights the winner of them two. That’s the logical way to create a little tournament and it will create excitement as well.”
