BOXING WORLD TITLE SPECIAL FEVER LAS VEGAS Groves on to a winner
GEORGE GROVES has been dreaming of winning a world title in Las Vegas since he was 13.
And tomorrow night he gets the chance to make his dream come true when he takes on WBC super-middleweight champion Badou Jack at the MGM Grand.
Groves, 27, visited Sin City when he was a teenager with his amateur club Dale Youth. The Londoner stayed at the Texas Station Hotel and Casino, which also staged Floyd Mayweather Jnr’s first professional fight, with his title shot on the American’s undercard.
Groves was busy scoffing at the buffet back then, but tomorrow he wants to satisfy his hunger by finally becoming a world champion at the third attempt.
He said: “It was just cool. It set the tone – you want to be a world champion and you want to fight in Vegas.
“It’s nice that we’ve come that far. Old clubmates, I’ll come across them on social media and they’ll say, ‘Do you remember Vegas 2003?’ I was like 12 or 13.
“It was amazing. I shared a room with a lad called Simon O’Donnell and we got buy-one-getone-free coupons to the buffet, where it was $8.
“We would eat a day’s worth of food so we wouldn’t have to eat again.
“It was great and we probably spent a little too much time wandering up and down the Strip and not relaxing.
“They were some of the best experiences you could have as a kid.”
There has been no wasting time on the Strip on this visit and Groves, who beat Alfredo Contreras at Mandalay Bay in Vegas in 2010, believes the familiarity of the city will negate Jack’s home advantage.
Stockholm-born Jack, 31, moved to the gam- bling capital when he signed with Mayweather Promotions.
Groves, who lost to Carl Froch in his two previous world title shots, said: “He talks about Vegas being his adopted home, but when you’re in the ring, it doesn’t matter where you are.
“I feel like I’m just as much as home as he is.”
MAYWEATHER v Berto and Groves v Jack is live on BoxNation (Sky 437/HD 490, Virgin 546, TalkTalk 415) tomorrow night. Visit boxnation.com to subscribe.