George Groves: I will knock Eubank Jr. out cold on Feb.17

By Boxing News - 01/29/2018 - Comments

Image: George Groves: I will knock Eubank Jr. out cold on Feb.17

By Tim Royner: WBA Super World super middleweight champion George ‘Saint George’ Groves (27-3, 20 KOs) is predicting a vicious thrashing of IBO belt holder Chris Eubank Jr. (26-1, 20 KOs) in their fight next month on February 17 in the semifinals of the World Boxing Super Series [WBSS] at the Manchester Arena in Manchester, England.

Groves says he’s going to his powerful jab and range to control the 28-year-old Eubank Jr. on the night before he knocks him clean out in front of a large crowd of boxing fans.

These 2 fighters don’t like each other. The winner of the fight will be able to brag for a while before they need to start getting ready for the WBSS finals to face the winner of the Juerge Braehmer vs. Callum Smith fight, which takes place a week later on February 24th in Germany.

Groves, 29, comes into the Eubank Jr. fight with 2 consecutive knockouts over Jamie Cox and Fedor Chudinov. Groves stopped both of those fighters with body shots. Before that, Groves defeated Eduard Gukknecht by a one-sided 12 round decision in November 2016. That was a fight that ended badly with Gukknecht needing to be taken to the hospital for a brain bleed. His career is now over.

Eubank Jr. comes into the fight with recent wins over Avni Yildirim, Arthur Abraham, Renold Quinlan and Tom Doran. The one fight that Eubank Jr. had the chance to take was against IBF/IBO/WBA/WBC middleweight champion Gennady Golovkin in September 2016, but he failed to agree to it in time before it was offered to Kell Brook. That match could have made Eubank’s career if he’d accepted it and won.

Eubank Jr. would be more popular now even if he lost to GGG. Brook gained a lot of popularity in the Golovkin fight, and he was stopped in the 5th round. It was a missed opportunity on Eubank’s part in not taking that fight.

“When you talk about boxing genetics, sure I know his dad boxed well but that was well before my time,” Groves said to ESPN.com about some comments that Eubank Jr’s father Chris Eubank Sr. said. “I bumped into Senior and I thought he would come better prepared with something to say other than his son is genetically gifted at boxing because of what he achieved.”

Eubank Jr. hasn’t done anything yet to show that he’s even remotely as good as his famous father. The best guys that Eubank Jr. has beaten during his 7-year pro career is these fighters:

• Renold Quinlan

• Arthur Abraham

• Avni Yildirim

• Nick Blackwell

• Gary O’Sullivan

• Dmitry Chudinov

Eubank Jr. lost to Billy Joe Saunders by a 12 round split decision in November 2014. There’s no question that Eubank Jr. deserved the loss in that fight. He was out-boxed by Saunders though the first 7 rounds. By the time Eubank Jr. finally started to apply pressure against Saunders in the 8th, he was hopeplessly behind in the fight and needed either a knockdown or a knockout to win.

”I think that lately I am unstoppable,” Groves said. ”My distance control is fantastic, my reach is spot on, my jab is a lot faster than his. These are all things that will cause Junior nightmares and I believe it will be a comfortable fight. Once I find my range I am going to ice him. I believe he will be out cold.”