George Groves (boxer)

George Groves
Groves at Wembley Arena (5 November 2011)
Born	George Groves (1988-03-26) 26 March 1988 Hammersmith, London, England
Nationality	English
Other names	Saint
Statistics
Weight(s)	Super middleweight
Height	5 ft 11½ in (1.82 m)
Stance	Orthodox
Boxing record
Total fights	19
Wins	19
Wins by KO	15
Losses	0
Draws	0
No contests	0

George William Groves (born 26 March 1988) is an English boxer. Currently promoted by Matchroom Sport, he is a former amateur champion and the reigning Commonwealth titleholder in the super middleweight division. To date he remains undefeated as a professional.

Amateur career

Groves (right) fighting Paul Smith at Wembley Arena (5 November 2011)

George Groves generally fought in the 75 kg category as an amateur and won the Senior ABA championship for his weight in 2006 and 2007. He also fought in championships around the world and won medals in places such as Russia, Estonia, Bosnia, Morocco and the United States. In 2006, he defeated future Olympic champion James DeGale and in total compiled an amateur record of 66 wins out of 76 fights with 40 stoppage victories.

Professional career

Groves turned professional and joined the Hayemaker Promotions stable. His first fight as a professional took place in November 2008 at The O2 Arena, on the undercard of David Haye's win over Monte Barrett with a six round win over Lithuanian, Kirill Pshonko. His next outing in February 2009, saw him score a third round stoppage over Frenchman, Romaric Hignard in a fight at the York Hall in Bethnal Green. He followed the victory up in March defeating Paul Samuels at the Echo Arena in Liverpool, and in April travelled to Belfast to dispose of Hungarian Sandor Polgar.

In September 2009, following the collapse of Hayemaker's television deal with Setanta Sports, Groves along with Olympian bronze medal winner David Price signed a promotional deal with veteran boxing promoter Frank Maloney who described Groves as "one of the world's best prospects". Despite signing for Maloney however, Groves would continue to be managed and trained by Hayemaker's Adam Booth. On 7 November 2009, following two more professional outings, Groves travelled to Germany and fought on the undercard of stablemate David Haye's WBA title win against Nikolai Valuev, defeating experienced Belarussian, Konstantin Makhankov in his first fight over eight rounds.

British and Commonwealth champion

Groves first title shot came on 3 April 2010, when on the undercard of stablemate David Haye's first title defence against John Ruiz at the MEN Arena in Manchester, Groves, in only his ninth fight, defeated Charles Adamu of Ghana with a 6th round technical knock out to win the Commonwealth title. Groves had dominated the fight, knocking Adamu down once in the first and twice in the fourth before the referee stepped in with 9 seconds of round six to hand the fight to Groves. Groves followed up the win by traveling to Las Vegas to gain some big fight experience and to fight on the undercard of the Juan Manuel Marquez vs. Juan Diaz world title fight on 31 July 2010. Groves opponent, the Mexican Alfredo Contreras, had a solid record of 11 wins against 7 losses going into the fight but represented a higher level of international journeyman than those Groves had already beaten. The fight was stopped in the 6th round with Groves declared the winner after the referee decided that Groves was getting through too much and so chose to call off the fight. On 13 November 2010 Groves made the first defence of his title beating former Commonwealth Games gold medalist Kenny Anderson in the sixth round. The fight, on the undercard of David Haye's world title clash with Audley Harrison at the MEN Arena, resulted in a career first knockdown for Groves as he endured his toughest fight to date. On 5 March 2011 Groves defeated Ghanain boxer Daniel Adotey Allotey at the Huddersfield Leisure Centre, winning by stoppage in the 4th round of what was an 8 round non-title fight. Following the bout Groves said that the fight had been preparation for a potential future clash with British champion James DeGale, a fight he predicted that he would win. He said "Whether it comes by knockout or points, I don't really care. He knows that I've got his number and he's going to struggle to sleep in the preparation for this fight because he is going to have to be on his brain all the time." On 21 May 2011 at the O2 Arena in London, Groves and Degale met in a Commonwealth and British Super Middleweight title fight. Groves was declared the winner by unanimous decision after 12 closely fought rounds. Two judges scored the fight 115-114 in favour of Groves with another scoring the fight 115-113.

Changing promoter

A rematch between DeGale and Groves became a possibility when Frank Warren, DeGale's promoter, announced that he had signed Groves to his stable on a three-year deal. Warren said, "It is an obvious fight that will definitely happen again", adding "The last fight was very close and a few observers felt that it could have gone either way". Despite leaving the Hayemaker promotional stable, Groves' manager and trainer Adam Booth announced that the decision to join Frank Warren was in the best interests of Groves' career. In his first fight with Warren on 5 November 2011, Groves beat former British champion Paul Smith in two rounds at the Wembley Arena in London to retain his British and Commonwealth titles.

Froch vs Groves

The IBF has installed Groves as the mandatory challenger to Carl Froch, with a bout between them taking place on 23 November, 2013 at the Phones4u Arena in Manchester; Froch's IBF and WBA super-middleweight titles will be on the line. On 17 September, it was announced that Groves had parted ways with trainer Adam Booth.

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