RETURN OF THE JEDDAH Groves fit for a title fight after first Saudi call-off Easy run to final will cost Smith, says champion
World Super Series Super-middleweight Final, Friday
Tom Hopkinson
GEORGE GROVES claims that the “path of least resistance” Callum Smith has trodden on the way to Jeddah will prove his downfall.
The two Brits meet in Saudi Arabia on Friday to contest the delayed World Boxing Super Series super-middleweight final.
They were scheduled to meet in June, but the dislocated shoulder Groves suffered in his semi-final victory over Chris Eubank Junior in February saw the showdown postponed.
Clash
It will now take place this week and will be the culmination of a year’s work for both men, with Groves beating Jamie Cox last October and Eubank Jr to set up the clash in the Red Sea city.
Smith, meanwhile, beat Swede Erik Skoglund in the quarter-finals last September, then Nicky Holzken in February, with the unheralded Dutchman a late replacement for tough German Juergen Braehmer. Groves, the WBA Super World supermiddleweight champion, reckons Smith’s route to the final won’t have done him any favours.
He said: “In any other sport, an easier route to the final is your best route, but in this sport, it isn’t.
“He has not been able to test himself at the highest level.
“If it’s not required, you’re not going to push yourself and you’re going to take the route of least resistance.
“He doesn’t win fights as easily or as convincingly as he should do. He labours to a points victory or a late stoppage.
“His biggest win is over Rocky Fielding, which he did win early.”
It’s true that the fighters Smith has met are not the same pedigree as those Groves has shared a ring with.
And, while the big fights haven’t always ended the way Groves wanted them to, his experience on the big stage far outweighs Smith’s.
Groves’ defeat to Carl Froch in Manchester in 2013 was big and the rematch – in front of 80,000 fans at Wembley Stadium – was massive.
The 30-year-old lost both battles and his third world-title shot, against Badou Jack, went the same way in 2015.
That night, though, he boxed on a huge bill in Las Vegas, which was headlined by Floyd Mayweather Jr and Andre Berto, putting Friday’s bout at the King Abdullah Sports City venue into perspective. Groves, who beat Smith’s eldest brother, Paul, in 2011, hasn’t tasted defeat since losing to Jack three years ago. And he finally realised his dream of becoming world champion when he beat Fedor Chudinov in May 2017, to the vacant belt he has defended twice since, against Cox and Eubank Jr. Now he is confident of defending it for a third time against Smith, whose other brothers, Stephen and Liam, are also professional boxers. Groves added: “It will be a different sort of pressure for him. “But he is quite fortunate because it’s out of the UK and he’s not going to be in a bubble of people stopping him in the street – although that might have spurred him on. “I don’t know him well, but he seems quite a laid-back character and he’s from a boxing family, so the pressure was not on him as he was growing up.
“But in the last few years, when they have turned their attention to him and talked him up, he hasn’t done anything and has blamed the promoter for not delivering the fights he wanted.
Domain
“He’s fixated with the fight versus me to validate the hype around him.
“But it’s also a safety net because I’m ranked No.1 in the division, so, if he fails, he can still come again.
“It will be an interesting build-up and feel on fight night because we are in a different domain.
‘But I’ve got more experience than him.
“I’ve boxed all around the world and on big shows like against Badou Jack in Las Vegas on the Mayweather undercard.
“This is a massive step up for him, but it’s not my hardest fight on paper.”