YOU’VE NO CHANCE
Eubank is too small to beat me, boasts Groves after Cox KO
FIVE minutes before the draw for World Super Series tournament, Chris Eubank Snr told George Groves: ‘You better not beat my son.’
Groves recalled that remark late on Saturday night after his knockout victory at Wembley Arena had set up a mega-fight against Chris Jnr early next year.
As he did so, he reprised the knowing smile with which he responded on that gala evening in Monaco.
Saint George takes it as a sign that the Eubanks are realising now how serious this hard old business is about to become.
Having finished off Jamie Cox with a meat cleaver of a right hand buried deep into the pit of the stomach, Groves said of the flamboyant father and son who were watching from ringside: ‘They are beginning to conform to boxing. They are performers first, fighters second.
‘But if young Chris doesn’t make changes quickly he has no chance against me. When his father said what he did, I thought, “He knows. He’s always respected me”.’
Either way, and whether their big domestic battle takes place at Chelsea or Fulham football ground or indoors at Wembley or Manchester Arena, Groves expects to win their semi-final.
Groves, a Chelsea fan, is pressing promoter Kalle Sauerland to hire Stamford Bridge. If not, even as early as January or February, he would prefer the great out- doors in midwinter, saying: ‘It will be warm in the dressing room and I would welcome the cold when we go out. It gets very hot inside under the arc-lights. I’ll be happy if it snows.’
For the moment, having disposed of Cox inside four rounds in this first defence of his WBA crown, Groves senses that his rehabilitation from three preceding world-title defeats — two by Carl Froch, one by Badou Jack — is now complete.
‘Those losses were part of what has now made me the best boxer I have ever been,’ he said. ‘There was a bit of truth that I had lost my mojo. Against Jack I was flat.
‘The pressure got to me. I’ve emerged all the better for it. Look at this fight. I knew it was only a matter of time before I got rid of him.’
Not much time, as it happened. Only until one minute and 42 seconds into the fourth round. Just one round longer than it took Eubank to demolish Avni Yildirim in Stuttgart seven nights earlier.
As Sauerland said: ‘ The anticipation for their semi-final caught fire last weekend and George has just poured more gasoline on the flames.’
Groves added more fuel when he said: ‘It’s not easy for Chris to keep up the act. His father is still doing it.
‘He came to Monaco in his bow tie with his Louis Vuitton briefcase under his arm, and asked me if I thought he could get a licence to get into the tournament. I told him he was too old.
‘But being out there performing 24/7 when you’re preparing for a fight is exhausting. Junior likes the prestige of being constantly on stage but it gets more difficult as the fights move to a higher level. I found it tiring when I was selling some of my previous big fights.
‘Now you won’t see me sending out selfies of myself looking good in training on the internet.
‘After a short break with the family I will be back focusing on myself and being how I felt in this fight: genuinely unstoppable.’
Another part of Groves’s logic is that Eubank, like Cox, has moved up in weight to compete in this super-middleweight tournament. Groves added: ‘Jamie was too small to beat me. So is Chris.’
Still, it will be fun finding out. Even if it snows.