James DeGale is deluded - George Groves

by Shaun Brown for Undisputed Fight Mag

The days of having twenty or thirty fights before having any kind of title contest are long gone. Boxing is now about being fast tracked to titles, money and pay-per-view sales. And there are some instances with some prospects where you can see they are heading for a nasty fall. But with George Groves (10-0) it’s very hard to argue against many people’s prediction that he will be a world champion one day. “When I turned professional me and my trainer Adam (Booth) sat down and discussed
the future. I’m always looking to make the next step up but we also want to make sure we are ready for it at the same time. I’m not interested in hanging around for people to make voluntary defenses of their titles. We are happy to pay over the odds to get challenging opponents for me so we can give the public what they want,” he explained.
In his first defence of his Commonwealth super-middleweight title the Londoner will square off against James Obede Toney (former opponent of Lucian Bute and Roman Karmazin) on October 30th at the iconic York Hall. Whilst Groves doesn’t want to be hanging around he isn’t underestimating his Ghanaian challenger. “When I do get to the top I want to make sure that all the preparations have been spot on. I don’t want to have papered over the cracks to get through fights. At the highest level
that gets you found out,” stated Groves.
What of the rumors that Toney was not the first guy on the list and that the unbeaten yet inactive Kenny Anderson was offered the fight? “He (Toney) was one of the first guys we looked at. He’s like a better version of Charles Adamu (who Groves beat to win the title) but more competent and more compact. Since I seem to have been fazed out at the British title scene we offered the fight to Anderson. Everything seemed fine but when it came to signing the deal things went wrong. Both teams never agreed. We weren’t asking him to sign his life away. So we went with
Toney and to be honest he would beat all the guys at domestic level anyway.”
The former child kick boxer who is now using his fists to great effect appears to be on a collision course with British rival James DeGale. Since they fought in the amateurs in 2006, people in the trade have been hoping that their now bitter rivalry would surface in the professional ranks. The demand for the fight is already into overdrive. Would it be better if there was more on the line? It doesn’t seem to matter to either man as both are willing to fight right now. Something that almost happened after DeGale’s last impressive victory over Carl Dilks. “They (DeGale and promoter Frank Warren) were calling me out after that fight. And the offer for £50,000 to fight him did come in on the Monday morning afterwards. We are deadly
serious about the fight. We know how much hype there is around this and how much money can be made. So we went back with a better offer. We wanted it to be on one of our shows at Hayemaker but they weren’t interested. At the end of the day DeGale is just another stepping stone I need to get out the way. Groves’ opinion of the Olympic gold medalist? “He’s deluded! Too many people are whispering in his ear and he believes
what they tell him. He had talent in the amateurs and in the pros he’s been matched well.
In his head we’re still both school kids and he’s the fat 15-year old light-heavyweight and I’m the 13-year old light-welterweight,” laughed Groves.
Groves appears to have nothing but disdain for the current British super-middleweight champion Paul Smith who as confirmed earlier today will fight
DeGale on Dec 11. “If he (Smith) gets further then he’ll be in deep water. He’lllose to DeGale, but lets put it this way he wont be doing it for nothing. I’ve been calling out Smith for six months. He should just tell it as it is. He’s coming to the end of his career and he didn’t want to get beat by me.”
There is no doubt that exciting times lie ahead at 168lbs in the UK. On the world scene, despite the problems the Super Six is having, it is still a red-hot division with so much depth. Groves and DeGale should they continue winning will improve the division furthermore. The British fight fans are anticipating another Nigel Benn -Chris Eubank rivalry from those glory nights in the 1990s.
For now though, Groves is taking it one fight at a time. “Once Toney is out the way I want to pick up titles. I want to get myself into position to fight for that British title so that I can’t be ignored. But I’m not waiting 12 to 18 months for these things to happen.”