Young Eubank in trainer shot
CHRIS Eubank Jnr has hit back at George Groves – labelling his trainer Shane McGuigan as a ‘boy’ and insisting that the training duo of his father and Ronnie Davies are much more accomplished than his rival’s team.
Eubank Jnr faces WBA super-middleweight champion Groves at the Manchester Arena this weekend in the semi-final of the World Boxing Super Series.
Eubank Jnr has stated on several occasions that he is self-trained, and Groves has said in the build-up to the fight that he believes his opponent’s training set-up is ‘the blind leading the blind.’
Eubank Jnr disagrees, and believes the men in his corner are a lot more skilled than McGuigan, who will be with Groves.
“If a former world champion and his trainer (Chris Eubank Snr and Ronnie Davies) are blind men in the sport of boxing then George doesn’t know his history or what he’s talking about,” said Eubank Jnr.
“How can you compare my camp and my team to his team and Shane McGuigan. Shane is a boy in this game. We’re not blind, we see everything. There’s nothing that my team hasn’t been seen or done in the sport of boxing. Everything that George says is just filler to try and come across as confident. He’s reaching.”
Eubank Jnr and Groves met at a press conference in Manchester yesterday, and the challenger felt that Groves was struggling to cope with the surroundings.
“George has lost the battle of wits. He’s lost miserably in my opinion. Everything he said was weak and negative. He was stumbling over his words,” he said.
“He wasn’t answering questions properly and just wanted to get out of the situation. He doesn’t like being in close proximity with me.
“You can’t get any closer then when we’ll be in the ring. I told him that I want this more than him, and we’ll see why on Saturday .”
Despite Eubank Jnr’s claim, Groves says he is perfectly calm heading into the fight, and thinks that his rival’s lack of experiences in big fights means he will be doubting whether or not he has done everything correctly.
“He must be nervous as he’s on the big stage. He’ll be questioning everything that he does as he’s never done any of this before,” said Groves.
“He’ll be thinking ‘have I done too much press, should I have had better quality sparring? Should I reconsider my tactics?’ I’d certainly be nervous if I was him and hadn’t done any of this before, but maybe that’s just me.
“This isn’t the biggest fight of my career, but it’s certainly his biggest.”
CHALLENGER HITS BACK AT TEAM BEHIND GROVES