By Alan Ross: George Groves took the British Commonwealth Super-Middleweight title tonight with a stoppage win over Ghana’s Charles Adamu. Fighting on the undercard of Haye-Ruiz at the MEN Arena in Manchester, UK, and in only his ninth pro fight, Groves proved to be well ahead of his nominally more experienced opponent. After the fight was stopped in the sixth he took the opportunity to call out the British Champion Paul Smith.

Groves boxed intelligently, and although his defence was talked about as being a little suspect Adamu was rarely able to test his chin. With a knockdown in the first and then a couple more in the fourth, Groves imposed himself on the fight, moving well and not letting Adamu’s swinging shots get close enough to do serious damage. When the referee eventually called off the contest in the sixth round Adamu didn’t exactly look a spent force, but was clearly well behind and lacked the tools to get back into the fight.

Groves long reach proved to be a real asset in this fight, with hime able to keep Adamu at a safe distance while unloading his shots; he covered up well enough when on the way out after stepping in to deliver combinations, and Adamu – billed as something of a “wild man” – seemed unable to work out how to take on an opponent that simply had the better skills. Groves movement was particularly notable, with him able to control the pace of the fight and move his opponent around the ring. You got the feeling that Adamu – who lost this same title to Carl Froch back in 2004 and from his record doesn’t often do well outside his home coutry – knew from the first knockdown that it was a matter of time, and his body language during the fight certainly didn’t give the impression of someone expecting to win.

What have we learnt about Groves from this fight? Well, we haven’t seen enough to say that he’s the next big thing in the division – Adamu was simply too limited to tell us that – but he looked to have decent power and good movement, and showed patience as well to pick his shots. For more than that, we’ll need to wait for Groves to fight someone with a lot more craft in the ring. This was talked about as a step up in class for Groves; whether it was is debatable, but there is certainly more to come from the Hammersmith boxer.

Other action on the card:

Sergey Khomitski TKO 7 Jamie Moore
Peter McDonagh dec 8 Christopher Sebire