By Scott Gilfoid: In a recent interview with Ifilm London, British and Commonwealth super middleweight champion George Groves (13-0, 10 KO’s) said his next move after he defends his two titles against Paul Smith (31-2, 17 KO’s) on November 5th is to go after the European super middleweight title, which is currently held by Piotr Wilczewski.

However, James DeGale (10-1, 8 KO’s) faces Wilczewski on October 15th, and the chances are very high that DeGale will emerge as the winner of that fight. In fact, I’d say it’s almost guaranteed that DeGale beats Wilczewski and takes his European Boxing Union strap. This sets up a possible rematch between DeGale and Groves for early next year provided that Groves gets by Smith on November 5th.

I see that as a much more dangerous fight for Groves than I do DeGale’s fight against the light hitting Wilczewski. Smith can punch and Groves’ style is made to order for him. But if everything goes as planned in those two fights, then we could see a rematch between Groves and DeGale very soon.

This is what Groves had to say in the Ifilm interview: “I’m in front of DeGale; I beat James DeGale; I’m better than James DeGale. So, if Frank Warren wants to do what’s best for his business and wants what’s best for boxing…I’m keep taking his [DeGale] titles. The European title is the next logical step if I can make a bigger step in the future, I’ll do that. My career doesn’t evolve around James DeGale. I beat him now. It’s not good for him for me to beat him again. I think Frank knows that. It would be good for us to take out own career paths. He’s [DeGale] going to be itching for a rematch because he feels all he had to do was try a little harder and that would have done the deal. He could be more wrong. So I’m concentrating on defending my British titles and that’s what I’m going to be doing.”

It sure sounds like Groves is ambivalent about fighting DeGale again. It doesn’t make sense. That’s the money fight for Groves, yet he sounds like he’s not interested in taking the fight, but is trying to twist things to make it seem as if he doesn’t want to do it out of concern for hurting DeGale’s career. I smell fear from Groves. I don’t think he beat DeGale last time out, and I think he knows that.

That was one of the worst decisions I’ve seen in a long, long time. Granted, Groves did better than I and a lot of people expected him to do against DeGale, especially with his boxing in the first five rounds. But from then on, it was all DeGale. I had DeGale winning all the rounds from the 5th round on with his pressure.

DeGale literally had to chase after Groves to force him to stop running and just fight. I think Groves realizes how he dodged a bullet in that fight, and that’s why he’s not eager for a rematch. What else can you say for a guy that’s not eager to take the biggest fight out there for him? Grove looks flat out afraid of DeGale. Of course none of this will make any difference if Groves can’t get by Smith in November, so I hope he does his best in that fight because I have doubts he’ll win it.

Groves says he’ll be pulling for DeGale in his fight against Wilczewski in October, hoping DeGale wins that fight. I bet. I don’t think Groves wants DeGale to win, because if he loses, Groves will be off the hook for a rematch against him. He’ll have the excuse to ignore DeGale for a long time to come if he can’t win that fight. It kind of reminds me of Amir Khan and Breidis Prescott, with Khan almost seeming ecstatic when the news about Prescott getting beaten by Paul McCloskey was announced.