GEORGE GROVES hopes Chris Eubank Jnr remains at super-middleweight after his fight with Renold Quinlan next weekend – though insists he is not yet a pay-per-view fighter.
Eubank will headline ITV’s first ever pay-per-view show next weekend against unfancied Quinlan.
Groves – who has boxed on pay-per-view numerous times – feels Eubank will eventually prove himself a worthy PPV headliner, but not in fights like this.
“Chris can do his thing, he’s stepping into unknown territory on a new pay-per-view platform. Part of me, I genuinely want ITV to be a success, not because I dislike anyone else but because the more competition there is, the more room there is for big fights to be made and other fighters to break through,” he told Boxing News.
“At the same time, this is an appalling fight to be pay-per-view, to be honest. Chris Eubank Jnr will sell, will one day become a genuine pay-per-view fighter but he’s not a one-sided pay-per-view fighter, not by any stretch of the imagination. I hope that, if it doesn’t do well, ITV don’t decide to pull the plug on this because I genuinely want ITV to be a force. I want them to do what I think they can do, and that’s rival the biggest shows in the UK. Certainly it’s going to be a process because the biggest names are not with ITV.”
Eubank Jnr – a former British middleweight champion who previously walked away from a fight with Gennady Golovkin – will debut at 168lbs against Quinlan, who wrecked a shopworn Daniel Geale in his last fight.
Groves, who has failed in three attempts at world honours but will box Fedor Chudinov for the WBA strap later this year, feels the Brightonian should stick at the weight, as there would be lucrative options for him.
He said: “I’d like him to stay at super-middleweight because there are bigger fights for him there. At middleweight, there’s not so much going on. I like Eubank, I like his style. I think he needs a few more learning fights before he steps up to the plate against the bigger names. We shall see.”
