Groves and Booth in legal battle

George Groves has broken away from preparing for the biggest fight of his life to engage in a legal battle with his former trainer Adam Booth.

Groves, whose world super-middleweight title challenge to Carl Froch is little more than two weeks away, was locked in a hearing which will decide whether Booth gets his manager’s cut of the purse for that big all-British showdown.

The north Londoner was obliged to attend Tuesday’s hearing of the Southern Area Council for several hours. He and his lawyers were confronted by booth and his legal team at a secret venue in London.

Froch, the IBF and ‘regular’ WBA world champion, was, meanwhile, in full training

Booth, who is also David Haye’s guru, split from his role as trainer to Groves last month.
That in itself was a shock with such a big fight in the offing.

Now the British boxing authorities must decide whether Booth should receive a quarter of Groves’ reward for taking on one of the toughest champions in world boxing.




Groves is projected to bank between £350,000 and £450,000 for fighting Froch, with the final figure dependent on the scale of pay-per-view subscriptions from Sky Box Office.

Should he accrue a median £400,000, a successful application for manager’s fees by Booth would cost him £100,000.

Both sides are believed to have insisted on holding the hearing now, even though Groves should be focusing on the weighty task upcoming at a sold-out Manchester Arena on November 23.

The distraction for Groves will drag on until at least Wednesday, when the Southern Area findings are reported to the full Council.

Their initial outcome will go to the British Boxing Board of Control’s monthly meeting next Wednesday and General Secretary Robert Smith says: ‘There is a possibility that this could go before our appeal stewards after that.’

Groves’ determination to fight his case has to affect his focus on a challenge which he is already approaching with a temporary trainer.

Froch is reported to be on a minimum guarantee of £1.5million for this fight.