George Groves

George Groves (born 26 March 1988) is a British former professional boxer who competed from 2008 to 2018.

Groves generally fought in the 75 kg division 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 and world champion James DeGale and compiled a total amateur record of 66 wins out of 76 fights with 40 stoppage victories.

As an amateur, Groves won the ABA middleweight title twice in 2007 and 2008.

Groves turned professional on 15 November 2008 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 Kirill Pshonko.

His next outing in February 2009, saw him score a third round stoppage over 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 Sandor Polgar.

In September 2009, following the collapse of Hayemaker's television deal with Setanta Sports, Groves along with Olympic bronze medalist 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 the experienced Konstantin Makhankov in his first fight over eight rounds.

At regional level, he held multiple super-middleweight titles, including the European, British, and Commonwealth titles between 2010 and 2014.

Groves' first title opportunity came on 3 April 2010, as part of the undercard of David Haye's first title defence against John Ruiz at the MEN Arena in Manchester.

Groves, in only his ninth fight, defeated Charles Adamu via TKO to win the Commonwealth super-middleweight title.

Groves had dominated the fight, knocking Adamu down once in the first and twice in the fourth before the referee stepped in with nine seconds remaining in the sixth.

Groves followed up the win by travelling to Las Vegas in order to gain some higher-profile experience and to fight on the undercard of Marquez-Diaz II on 31 July 2010.

Groves' opponent, Alfredo Contreras, had a record of eleven wins and seven losses going into the fight, but nonetheless represented a higher level of international journeyman than those Groves had already beaten.

The fight was stopped in the sixth round after the referee decided that Contreras was not sufficiently answering back with punches.

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 Daniel Adotey Allotey at the Huddersfield Leisure Centre, winning by stoppage in the fourth round of what was an eight-round non-title fight.

Following the bout Groves said that the fight had been preparation for a potential future clash with British champion and old foe 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 me on his brain all the time."

On 21 May 2011 at the O2 Arena in London, Groves and DeGale met in a highly anticipated grudge match for the Commonwealth and British super-middleweight titles.

Groves was declared the winner by majority decision after twelve closely fought rounds.

Two judges scored the fight 115–114 in favour of Groves, with another scoring the fight even at 115–115.

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.

After nine months out, Groves returned to the ring in July 2012 knocking out Mexican boxer Francisco Sierra in 2 rounds.

In December, Groves fought veteran former world champion Glen Johnson at the ExCel Arena.

At the time of the fight, Johnson was 19 years older than Groves.

Groves knocked Johnson down in the twelfth round, though Johnson appeared to fall more from being off balance.

Groves won a lopsided decision after 12 rounds when the judges scored it (120-107, 120-107 & 119-109).

Groves won 35 of 36 scored rounds on the three judges scorecards, gave Johnson a bad beating in the seventh round but the fight was not stopped though it could have been.

Groves fought twice in March 2013.

He held the WBA (Super) super-middleweight title from 2017 to 2018.

In March 2018, he was ranked as the world's best active super-middleweight by BoxRec, The Ring magazine and the Transnational Boxing Rankings Board.