Promoter Adam Booth says he has made a counter-offer of 'substantially more' for James DeGale to fight George Groves on a Hayemaker bill.
Booth ups the ante in response to Warren's deadline
Hayemaker Promotions have responded to Frank Warren's deadline by offering 'substantially more' for James DeGale to fight George Groves - on one of their shows.
Promoter Adam Booth says he has increased the purse after he was given 48 hours on Monday to agree to a clash between Britain's unbeaten super-middleweight prospects and bitter rivals.
DeGale and Warren both called Groves out straight after his victory over Carl Dilks at Magnificent Seven on Saturday night.
The promoter urged the Commonwealth champion, who was ringside at the LG Arena, to accept the challenge and Booth "to put his money where his mouth is".
They have since made that offer -
and set a deadline of Wednesday - to Hayemaker, who responded by upping the stakes.
"I have made a counter offer to Frank Warren this morning for James DeGale to fight George Groves on a Hayemaker show - and it is substantially more than his offer to us," Booth told
skysports.com.
"I have put my money firmly where my mouth is and seeing that Frank and James so desperately want the fight, I look forward to their acceptance."
Booth would not go into the financial details of Warren's offer, merely describing it as "an offer - that is substantially less than mine".
He wants the pair to meet on a Hayemaker show in December and believes that any fight between the two old amateur rivals has to happen soon.
Exciting
"They want it now," he said. "The super-middleweight division is an exciting division with a lot of good fighters.
"It's not like we're talking about the cruiserweight division or the heavyweight division, where there's not as many good fighters around.
"It's full with a lot of talent and our belief is George will get to that level and James won't.
"And because we believe that we think that maybe now is really the only time it can happen."
Meanwhile Booth also confirmed that they have found an opponent for Groves' scheduled Commonwealth title defence on October 30.
He refused to identify the challenger until the contracts have been signed, but said he is a "good, unbeaten fighter".
