Groves upset with Murray over Golovkin sparring story

By Boxing News - 06/23/2016 - Comments

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By Scott Gilfoid: Martin Murray (33-3-1, 16 KOs) thinks George Groves (23-3, 18 KOs) is little more than a quitter after saying that he quit on the second day of sparring with middleweight champion Gennady “GGG” Golovkin in the past. The sparring sessions between Golovkin and Groves took place years ago, and it’s unclear what actually took place.

Murray says Groves gave up and left camp after the second day of sparring with the Kazakhstan fighter. Groves says he did well in his second sparring session with Golovkin. Besides the sparring story, Murray thinks Groves has an ego problem and he sees him as someone that not only feels he’s superior as a fighter, but superior in general.

Groves and Murray will be fighting this Saturday night in a WBA super middleweight eliminator bout at the O2 Arena in London, UK. The winner of the Groves-Murray fight will be the WBA mandatory to 168lb champion Giovanni De Carolis (24-6, 12 KOs).

“I was told you went home on the second day of sparring Golovkin as you couldn’t cope,” said Murray to skysports.com. “You quit in sparring with head guard and big gloves. You are a quitter. He thinks he’s a superior fighter because that’s the way he is. He thinks he’s superior not just as a fighter but in everyday life, that’s the way he carries himself.”

Golovkin and his trainer Abel Sanchez would obviously know what the real deal was with his sparring with Groves. Never the less, Groves isn’t fighting Golovkin on Saturday night. He’s facing the 33-year-old Murray, so it doesn’t really matter what happened during the Golovkin-Groves sparring sessions.

If Groves is really superior to Murray, then he should be able to beat him without any problems. Groves hasn’t shown the kind of talent to where he’s been better than the higher caliber fighters. He lost to Carl Froch twice, and was beaten by Badou Jack last year. Many boxing fans thought Groves deserved a loss to James DeGale in 2011. I thought Groves should have lost. Groves didn’t look good at all against fringe contender Christopher Rebrasse in their fight in 2014. If Groves is a great fighter, then he should have been able to beat Rebrasse and Badou Jack easily. The fact that Groves struggled in both of those contests suggests that his talent doesn’t match his self-confidence.

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“To come out with something about sparring this week and pin his hopes to it?” said Groves to skysports.com. “We all saw him against Gennady Golovkin and he was beaten up badly. That’s the fact. That’s what happened but sparring is sparring, it wasn’t like I was preparing for a world title fight and I flew in Golovkin to give me work and then decided he was too good and sent him home again. We were on holiday. It’s 8-9,000 above sea level and I was getting out of breath getting up in the morning. I was fat and out of shape…I was sparring with Golovkin then. He asked if I wanted his body-belt – so he obviously knew – but I said no. Then a couple of days later I got back in and gave a really good account of myself. Probably because I hadn’t had that beer the night before.”

Well, there it is. From what Groves is saying here, it doesn’t sound like he did too well against Golovkin. I get the impression Groves was initially laboring when he got in the ring with him the first time. Whether Golovkin eased up on Groves later on when they sparred a couple of days later is unclear. Golovkin isn’t the type to just go out and drill his sparring partners into the canvas. He likes to get work in rather than focusing on annihilating guys that aren’t on his level. As such, I don’t think it means a whole heck of a lot that Groves is saying he gave a good account of himself with Golovkin during a later spar.

Of course, it would be a mismatch for Groves to be in the ring with Golovkin. I wouldn’t expect Groves to do well against Golovkin in sparring or in a fight. It’s not really fair. We’re talking about a struggling contender that has failed three times in world title shots, and an unbeaten world champion that has knocked out every opponent he’s faced since 2008 in Golovkin.

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The Groves vs. Murray winner will have a good chance of beating De Carolis to win the WBA super middleweight title. However, that doesn’t mean they’ll be able to hold onto the WBA title for long. #1 WBA Fedor Chudinov is the top rated contender in the World Boxing Association’s rankings right now, and it’s not news that he’s considered to be one of the best fighters in the division. Frankly, I can’t see Murray or Groves being able to hang with Chudinov. I thought Chudinov was robbed of a victory last February in losing a controversial 12 round majority decision to Felix Sturm in Germany.