George Groves spoke to Crowns Gym about the current landscape of the Boxing world, including Ben Whittaker, Connor Benn VS Chris Eubank Jr and Johnny Fisher VS Dave Allen.
Q: Who would be the ideal opponent for Whittaker up next?
A: Whether it’s next or not because I think he needs camps like. I don’t know how to call it camps, because they shouldn’t even really be camps, but he needs time with Andy Lee. You know, that’s a new relationship that he needs to be in. But you know, as you said earlier, his age, he’s not going to get another year of ‘gimmies.’ He’s going to have to be in there with decent opposition, tough fights, and there’s plenty of people out there for him. I he’s talking about the Willie Hutchinsons, Dan Azeez, Craig Richards, guys who maybe had a loss or so have been beaten by Buatsi or Callum Smith, or maybe even the top boys but they’re still a really good level of opposition. So I’d like to see him get in there with a few of those guys and whether that’s like immediately next, if it’s not immediately next, then get him boxing again in six weeks time, just to keep him busy, busy, busy. Whether his name and his price will allow that I don’t know. But if he’s willing to be like, well I want to be busy, invest in myself, then that would be the way I would do it if I was him.
Q: What were your thoughts on Dave Allen and Johnny Fisher?
A: At the time on the night, I thought it was bang even, but then with the knockdown, Dave Allen wins.
So in some ways I thought, for once, this feels like a little bit easy to score. They gave it to the prospect Johnny Fisher Jr. And yeah people got the hump after but they get to do it again.
Dave Allen, you know, he didn’t get the win. He got a loss on his record, but ultimately he’s got another big fight out of it. There we go. Good to go. He’s adamant he’s going to win it.
When you’ve been in there under the lights you do feel like you know someone. And he might even feel like he took a bit of Johnny Fisher’s soul that night because he took him to a dark place. But Johnny Fisher is probably thinking “mate, you took me as far as you could go, and I still came back and I bullied you and beat you up in that last round”. It’s a fight that for Johnny Fisher needs to be extremely different. You don’t need to be in any sort of bother or trouble in this fight.
You just need to stick to your plan. You know, the first half of that first fight was all his way and then he got caught so let’s take that bit out. The pressure’s going to be on him though. He’s at the Copper Bosh – 7,000 people. When I boxed it was just the Copper Box, now it’s the Copper Bosh. And you know, he’s always, he’s, I suppose he’s always had pressure through having that following, but it’s different, different now. You’re fighting a guy who people like, Dave Allen, fighting someone who a lot of people feel was hard done by. And you need to go out there and do a convincing job.
It can’t be close again. And he’s a wildly old pro, Dave Allen. He’s good at what he does. He’ll kill the clock, he’ll hit you on the break, he’ll do all the little old school tactics to get through and get the win. And Fish just got make sure he doesn’t let it happen. But I think he’s been away. Hasn’t he’s been abroad, he’s been training in Vegas.
You learn along the way. You have these ex-pros like me saying “don’t worry about, don’t take on these distractions”. You’re like “whatever old man”. Then they learn it don’t they?
Do you know what all them interviews, all them late nights, all them phone calls, all them ticket drops or whatever you’ve done that you should have been just resting. You’re not super human, you’re not Superman, just concentrate on your boxing mate. And that’s what he’s gotta do and I think he’s learned that and now he knows to be selfish enough to tell people “no” or to say “actually, I can’t do that,”.turn things down, concentrate on your boxing.
I think this might be the making of him. I think you’re going to see a fantastic performance from him and then all of a sudden his name’s going to be thrown back in the mix with some of these really good, exciting guys you’ve got here in the UK heavyweight wise.
Whether that be Fabio Wardley. David Adeleye’s got (Jeamie) TKV soon.
Q: The fight that never happened. Carl Froch against Joe Calzaghe. Who would have won if they had fought when they were both at their best?
Calzaghe would’ve smashed him! Calzaghe would’ve been very hard to fight ’cause he was very fast and he threw a lot of punches. If you caught him, he got dropped. So you had that feeling of “if I catch him, I can get him”.
Froch likes to walk through punches to land his own but Calzaghe was just very sharp, hands and feet, and he used to cut off at good angles, southpaw. I think he would’ve been too much for Froch at all the various parts of Froch’s career, whether Froch was at his best when he fought (Jean) Pascal or years that when he fought me. I’d say on their best day, Calzaghe beats him.
Yeah (they had) contrasting styles. You know, Froch was never in a really boring fight. You look at the Pascal fight, it was a shootout. Was that his best performance? The Jermain Taylor fight where he is on the floor, he is down and out, he’s buried and then he gets Taylor late – obviously at the end of Taylor’s career.
Q: With Chris Eubank JR VS Conor Benn, what would it mean for either of their careers if they are to go and get the win?
A: I mean, what is left of their careers? To be honest, when you think about it, maybe both guys are hoping that they can get another fight out of this after, because if Conor Benn wins, he’s highly marketable. But who do you match him with? Because you can give him easier fights or easy fights for a little bit. At what weight? I’m not sure. But at some point they’re gonna look at the legitness of all these rankings and ask ‘when are you gonna fight for a world title?’ And you look at all the champions that are there at the moment, Jaron Ennis, Crawford’s sort of scheduled to fight. Canelo, but he’s up at super welterweight now. There’s other guys that on paper from a boxing mind, they’d all beat Conor Benn. So where does Conno Benn go from there? Especially if you’ve had this massive fight, this high profile fight, and you’ve been paid a fortune. It’s hard to go back to the domestic level after that.
As for Eubank Jr, I don’t know what his end goal is. It feels like he’s got his eye outside of boxing now. Whether he is just doing it for his own enjoyment or not, he wants to battle Eddie Hearn. He wants to battle everyone, he wants to take on everyone now. He wants to control everything. He wants to control the narrative and that’s all well and good. But I remember doing the same thing, but I knew I had a career after. Whereas Eubank, where does he go from here? Because he is not gonna beat Janibek Alimkhanuly. He probably wouldn’t even beat Denzel Bentley. I wouldn’t even rank him as the best middleweight in Britain right now, let alone go and win a world title. At best, if the fight is really exciting and explosive, then maybe do it again…
Both Eubank and Benn together are gold. It’s interesting. And you go to their press conferences, you go to all the buildup. It is interesting. You buy into it, it’s definitely not fake. And it’s at times been really active, but predominantly Eubank has been uber charismatic and much like the father/sons before.
Q: Where could the Benn/Eubank rivalry rank in the history of British rivalries?
A: Eubank Sr and Nigel Benn are number one. Can’t argue with that. Number two, because of the fights and the buildup is me and Carl Froch. There was nothing like it. And I don’t think there’ll be anything like it again. I think next is me and James DeGale. When have you seen two guys from the same gym who hate each other, go in totally different directions? One being an Olympic champion, our paths crossed. Maybe right at the end we could have fought for a unified world title, and maybe we would’ve crept up into number two spot, maybe even number one. But that wasn’t quite there. Then we’re into ‘were we really rivals territory?’ And that seemed like a fabricated rivalry. I’m thinking of David Haye vs Tony Bellew which I didn’t really buy into. Like Haye vs Enzo Maccarinelli felt like it had a lot of spice back in the day. Tony Bellew and Nathan Cleverly. Amir Khan and Kell Brook were good too. The first time I heard Kell Brook’s name mentioned I was still an amateur, and he was the next big thing coming out of the Brendan Ingle gym. And I think that was when they were first linked, but then it felt like they weren’t linked again until right at the end. So I don’t know how eventually they did get the rivalry.
And then there’s ones that didn’t fight. Ricky Hatton and Junior Witter. I mean, the best is not British is it? But it’s gotta be like Muhammad Ali vs Joe Frazier. What about if AJ and Fury ever get it on? If there were no cameras rolling. I’m sure they would’ve cuddled each other at every moment of their career together. I don’t think either got into a really fierce rivalry. Fury will say he had a rivalry with Deontay Wilder more than anyone else. But even then I don’t think it was cut quite as deep as others. I’d say Conor Benn and Chris Eubank Jr are probably fourth in the list then. So I’ll say me and DeGale, because that was deep rooted. Me and Froch. Chris Eubank Sr and Nigel Benn. Maybe Eubank Jr and Conor Benn now since the drug scandals and just the fact that it’s been brewing for years and the egg slap, it definitely makes the top five.
Q: One that’s kind of coming up as well. Lyndon Arthur vs Anthony Yarde the rematch there. That’s on the undercard I believe, could be a good fight?
A: Should be a good fight. I mean, it is the third time they’re doing it.. So obviously the first time, Lydon beat Yarde and I know he performed really well. Didn’t perform so well in the rematch. But was that because Yarde was better. This third fight, Yarde has moved away from Warren and it was like Crawford coming over to the PBC, like, ‘we’re gonna get all these great fights for him.’ But so far, he’s not had anything has he? He got Lyndon Arthur again now. He’s gonna have to deal with him. But Yarde is a really good fighter but he’s always fallen a little bit short at top level.
But I want to see him in there with Joshua Buatsi or Callum Smith, one of those guys. Because you think for his experience, he’ll still have a hard job beating a Craig Richards or beating a Dan Azeez. So why risk it with those guys? Get in there with Smith.