By Shaun Campbell: WBA heavyweight champion David Haye seems is unlikely to face Wladimir Klitschko (not anytime soon anyway). Commonwealth super-middleweight champion George Groves is having difficulties setting up a bout with current British title holder James DeGale. One man links Haye and Groves, and that man is their trainer/manager Adam Booth. Booth trains just the two fighters full time, and also promotes them two under the Hayemaker Promotions banner.

However, it seems as if his negotiation skills are being tested with both the Klitschko fights and Grove’s challenge against DeGale. People are blaming the fighters, saying that they are “running scared” or “ducking” Klitschko and Degale. But more and more criticism of Adam Booth is coming from Frank Warren, who described him as “the most difficult person in boxing”. Warren himself is no saint and has his own faults, but the fact that a simple British title fight, between two of the best super-middleweights in the country, can’t be arranged is shameful. Whether it’s down to Booth asking for too much money, which was one of the comments made, or Warren being over-protective of his young stars. It could be either as Warren is not known for rushing his fighters as was the case with Ricky Hatton, Joe Calzaghe, and Amir Khan who were all nurtured to world title level fairly slowly, resulting in all 3 men leaving him for other promoters.

Booth however seems to have done exactly the opposite with his fighters. Groves fought for the Commonwealth title after just 9 fights, and in his last outting faced the-then unbeaten scot Kenny Anderson. Anderson proved the toughest test of Grove’s short career and put him down once in the fight, only to be stopped in the 6th. Haye was also brought along quickly which proved costly when he lost to Carl Thompson for the IBO title in only his 11th contest.

Booth management skills are risky, but his training techniques are also questionable. Groves’ defence looked non-existent in his fight against Anderson. A lot of unnecessary movement used up a lot of energy for Groves, who was breathing very heavily after just the 4th round. The performance was only partly down to the young commonwealth champion. Rumours circulated that Groves was over-trained for that fight, and after seeing the performance it’s likely that could have been an explanation. The style he is being taught looks uncomfortable for him and not his natural way of boxing. Glen McCrory has also questioned Groves style in the last fight.

Maybe it was just a bad night for Groves, but it is worrying that the young prospect who could be brilliant is having problems already. He is learning, there’s no doubt about that, but hopefully it isn’t a case of too much too fast for the young man.