Groves: DeGale needs to go his own way, I’ll try not to gloat [about beating him]

By Boxing News - 08/25/2011 - Comments

Image: Groves: DeGale needs to go his own way, I'll try not to gloat [about beating him]By Scott Gilfoid: British and Commonwealth super middleweight champion George Groves may have signed with Frank Warren, the same promoter for former British super middleweight champion James DeGale, but Groves doesn’t appear to be anymore interested in facing DeGale again than he was before signing with Warren.

Instead, Groves is looking to fight Kenny Anderson again, a fighter he knocked out in the 6th round last year. It doesn’t quite make sense other than giving one the impression that Groves wants no part of a rematch with DeGale after beating him by a very questionable decision last May.

Groves doesn’t seem to recognize that his “Win” was for from conclusive and many boxing fans regard it as a case of two of the judges scoring the fight to the wrong many. I saw the fight myself many times and have no doubts that DeGale should have been the one that got the decision in that fight instead of Groves. But it shows how fickle judges can be. The crowd seemed to be against DeGale from the moment he walked into the arena, and perhaps that’s why the judges scored it for Groves. The crowd applauded Groves even when he was missing shots. I don’t know how Groves can be happy with the decision he got when tons of people are questioning it.

Speaking with Sky Sports News, Groves said “I’m still training in the same gym with Adam Booth. James is doing his own thing, he’s on his own path and needs to go away and look after himself. We’ll probably bump into each other more than we used to and more than maybe we’d like, but that’s fine by me. I’ll just try not to gloat. It’s an opportunity to be on Frank Warren’s shows. No doubt he spotted a bit of talent the last time I boxed on one of his shows and thought I would be a good addition to his team.”

This is a weird relationship that Warren will have with Groves, as Adam Booth, Groves’ trainer and manager, will continue to work with Groves. I just hope that Booth doesn’t get in the way of Warren when he tries to match Groves with certain fighters. That would really make a mess of things if Booth is pulling Groves one way and Warren the other. We could have some real bickering in that case it won’t help anybody. Groves signed with Warren because he feels he can help get him the big fights that he wants to further his career, but it’s got to be Warren making the decisions in this.



Comments are closed.