George Groves beat James Degale on his Greatest Night
Friday 22 January 2016 06:37, UK
George Groves is back on Sky Sports next weekend but before that the super-middleweight contender reflects on his finest moment.
This Sunday's My Greatest Night looks back on one of the most bitter rivalry battles British boxing has ever seen.
While Groves has suffered three heart-breaking big-time fight defeats since, who can forget when him and James DeGale got it on?
George Groves: My Greatest Night
The build-up had plenty of bad blood - the history still runs deep - and the fight itself, at the O2 on May 21, 2011, was as tense and ultimately tight as we expected.
DeGale, the 2008 Olympic gold medallist, was the favourite going into it. Groves, the Commonwealth champion, had missed out on the team to travel to Beijing but had won the only amateur fight between them, five years earlier.
There were scores to settle on both sides.
Groves was the first to win a domestic title, the Commonwealth in March 2010. DeGale wasn't far behind, winning the British nine months later and both straps were up for grabs when their fight was finally confirmed.
Groves is from Hammersmith, DeGale from Harlesden but as the build-up began the five miles between them disappeared day-by-day. It couldn't have been any closer - in and out the ring.
We discovered these two never liked each other - and still don't. We've had British fighters fall-out to try and win the psychological war before the bell sounds, but Groves and DeGale didn't have to try. It was natural and nasty as it comes.
Nigel Benn and Chris Eubank Sr and Tony Bellew and Nathan Cleverly are sworn enemies, but their rivalries didn't start as teenagers, sharing the same gym and having the same fighting friends.
The comforting part of the build-up was I knew James. I was fighting somebody that I knew, it wasn’t a stranger. I knew how he trained, I knew his strengths and his weaknesses. I could articulate them a little bit better than he could to me. I really got under his skin.
Dale Youth was neutral territory and even the media day there and the emergence of the video of their amateur fight didn't light the touch paper. But it was shortening by the day.
An initial press conference at The Landmark hotel in central London saw them go nose-to-nose for the first time and the 'bad breath' insult breezed in.
Next up the famous Ringside show revealed the rivalry to the watching boxing world and the sparks started to fly.
DeGale steamed in with the 'bad breath' and 'bad suit' salvos, Groves remained the calmer and more composed of the two, biding his time, almost as if his nemesis had been hooked.
Whether he could win a fight that was supposed to be chief support on a Sky Sports Box Office show, no one knew. Apart, perhaps, from Groves and Adam Booth, the trainer and manager behind him.
When the fight-week press conference arrived, the pair were briefly overshadowed by Bellew's "f****** rat" insult at Cleverly. Bellew was hoping to be the late call-up for the planned top-of-the-bill bout on a night called This Is It.
DeGale and trainer Jim McDonnell were in such a confident mood, they were willing to bet the purse on the outcome.
I’d been like a robot in the build-up to that fight. I hadn’t expressed any emotion. It was the first time a fight affected not just me, but also my family because everyone else knew who I was boxing.
The offer was turned down by Booth, convinced that his fighter would win the fight, the bragging rights and the British and Commonwealth titles to boot.
The weigh-in saw two sets of fans try and make the most noise but by then, there was nothing to choose between the super-middleweight stars.
And by the Saturday night if there was anybody willing to put a bet on, DeGale was the slight favourite but maybe those who had felt that Groves had won the mind games put their money on the underdog.
It wasn't about money, it went deeper than anyone's pockets. After an incredibly close fight, if you agreed with the decision, or went against the judges, you couldn't complain - unless you were James DeGale.
While his historic IBF world title win meant he beat his foe to another glorious achievement last year, May 21, 2011, remains the worst night of his life.
And even if Groves goes on to win a world title at the fourth time of asking, it is hard to believe it will overshadow the narrowest of wins over the nastiest of enemies. It will always be his Greatest Night.
George Groves: My Greatest Night is on Sky Sports 1, 7.00pm, Sunday, following Arsenal v Chelsea on Super Sunday.
