By Scott Gilfoid: British and Commonwealth super middleweight champion George Groves (13-0, 10 KO’s) faces a tough test in former British super middleweight champion Paul Smith (31-2, 17 KO’s) next month on November 5th at the Wembley Arena, Wembley, London, England.

While Groves says he wants to move onto bigger and better things such as a world title in the near future, there is a lot of pressure for him to fight a rematch with James DeGale. Groves beat DeGale by a close 12 round decision last May in a fight that could have gone the other way.

Groves says he wants to keep learning and improving step by step until he fights for a world title. He sees the DeGale fight as something he’s already done and he wants to go past it, yet he could be fighting a rematch with Kenny Anderson in the near future. Anderson is someone Groves stopped last year in the 6th round, whereas DeGale appeared to beat Groves in the minds of many boxing fans. It could be that Groves doesn’t want to take the risk of fighting DeGale again in case he loses the next time around. In any event, it’s a fight that can only help Groves and not slow down his forward progression. At 23, it’s not as if Groves is getting old and is in a big hurry to fight for a world title before he ages out.

“I’ve beaten him twice,” Groves said to Westlondonsport.com. “I’ve done what I need to. My career is about going on to be a world champion and the best fighter I can be…My career doesn’t revolve around James DeGale.”

Facing Smith, a fighter that DeGale knocked out in the 9th round, doesn’t seem to make sense for Groves. If his goal is to be the best fighter he can be, shouldn’t he be facing the best guys? If he didn’t prove that he’s really better than DeGale, shouldn’t Groves fight him again and prove that he’s better than him?

None of this will make any difference if Groves can’t get by Smith next month and I have my doubts that he can. Smith packs a wallop and he’s a great pressure fighter. We’ve already seen Groves get hurt before in some of his fights, and Smith is a better puncher than Anderson in my view. All Smith has to do is make sure lands enough shots and he could have Groves out of there.