Wembley return won’t affect me

GROVES’ FOCUS ON FIGHT

GEORGE GROVES insists he will have no problem returning to Wembley Arena for the first time since he seriously injured Eduard Gutknecht.

Groves faces Jamie Cox on Saturday in the quarter-final of the World Boxing Super Series, 11 months after he ended Gutknecht’s career at the same venue.

The German was left in a desperate state, needing emergency surgery on his skull after his 12-round loss to Groves.

Gutknecht’s wife says her husband now struggles to walk and talk and has suffered a series of strokes.

WBA world super-middleweight champion Groves says what happened that night changed him forever.

Instinct

But he is ready to box in the same venue again. “I don’t think the arena as such will affect me – it could be anywhere,” he said.

“It’s a ring. Once I’m in that ring, it feels like anywhere else in the world, so I’m not too concerned or nervous about going back to Wembley.”

But Groves says what happened to Gutknecht has altered his fighting instinct. He said: “When I fought Fedor Chudinov for the world title, it was my first one after Gutknecht.

“I can remember it quite clearly – there’s ® a definite break where he comes in.

“He doesn’t have the ability to tie me up but he ends up underneath my arm and I look at the ref, and I’m almost looking at him as if to say, ‘What do you reckon? A bit more?’.

“Then, obviously, we break and I catch him with three, four, five punches and then it’s over – and I remember thinking, ‘I’m happy about that’.

‘‘Did I get that feeling before the Gutknecht fight? No. It’s definitely a new thing.”

The winner of Groves and Cox will face Chris Eubank Jnr in the semi-finals of the tournament in January.

The Londoner did not watch his fellow Brit overcome Avni Yildirim in three rounds at the weekend and instead caught up on the US hit TV series Ray Donovan to pass the time.

He said: “It was a conscious decision. I just want to focus on my fight. I didn’t watch it or watch it online or even read about it.”