Groves was desperate for a crack at Eubank

THIS may come as a surprise to those bowled over by Chris Eubank’s latest performance but George Groves insisted on being in the same half of the draw as him in the World Super Series tournament. Groves had already exercised his right, as No 1 seed, to hand pick his quarter-final opponent by directing the unheralded Jamie Cox to the opposite corner at Wembley Arena tonight. Now, on the eve of this fight for which he is an 8-1-on favourite, Groves reveals that he pressed for Eubank to be next in line. That was part of his price for bringing his WBA world supermiddleweight title to the tournament. No matter how dynamic Eubank looked in knocking out Avni Yildirim in the hostile atmosphere in Stuttgart last Saturday, this is part of Groves’s careful planning of a route to the final and what he expects to be his lifting of the Muhammad Ali Trophy and the £7million which will accrue to the winner. Groves explains why he wanted to meet Eubank as early as possible, saying: ‘Chris is also one of the four seeds but I did not want him going into the opposite half of the draw in case he got eliminated before I could get to him. ‘A fight between us is very big for the British public but there was a danger he wouldn’t make the final.’ Cox, undefeated at 31 but lacking experience against top-flight opposition in a career abbreviated by injury and legal problems, has the tournament catch-phrase: ‘I’m not the underdog. I’m the undertaker.’ Groves, a natural supermiddleweight, is significantly bigger than Cox, who has recently come up two divisions from light-middle. But Cox says: ‘It’s not size that matters. It’s hunger. George finally won his world title at the fourth attempt but I’m still the hungry one.’

GEORGE GROVES v JAMIE COX, LIVE on ITV Box Office from 7pm