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Carl Froch, the super-middleweight champion from Nottingham, is set to earn
around £8 million for his two-belt world-title defence against George
Groves, who is likely to make in the region of £2 million, at Wembley on
Saturday night.
The largest boxing event in British history, with 80,000 tickets sold, may
well be life-changing financially for the protagonists, yet the real prize
for the two men will be to have their hand raised at the end of it.
Pride will trump earning power. There will be serious bragging rights for the
victor after a long and attritional campaign from both champion and
challenger, punctuated by a legal appeal to the International Boxing
Federation, which forced this rematch after a controversial conclusion to
the first instalment. The IBF ruled that Groves had been stopped prematurely
in the ninth round of their encounter last November.
Yesterday, with Wembley Stadium empty and echoing, both men appeared subdued
in the face of a blizzard of camera flashes and interviews, and for once,
they barely sparred verbally.
Gone were the pushing, prodding and mental probing of months past. It is
business now. And both fighters said they were ready. The solitary nod
towards mind games came from Groves, who suggested that he would win by a
left-hook stoppage. Froch took it lightly, saying he would “keep the right
hand up”.
Groves, like Froch, admitted that there was little left to say. Poised after
the public stare-down and promotion of the event live on Sky Box Office, the
pair then spoke in separate rooms at Wembley.
Groves went first. “Nothing needs to be forced with Carl, so there’s no need
for me to try and force a reaction. His destiny is to lose and Saturday
night is fast approaching. I would much rather leave him to digest all of
that on his own.
“We went head-to-head and never said a word and he will have to deal with his
fate and his fate is going to come on Saturday night. Nothing needs to be
said between us. It’s fight week and he’s in a fight he cannot win because
my performance won’t allow him to be in the fight. That’s got to be a
terrible feeling for Carl and it’s only going to get worse.
“Whether he does or doesn’t know what’s coming, I’ve got all bases covered.
I’m a better fighter than Carl Froch and I beat him in every aspect. I
expect a much better and more focused Carl Froch, but at the same time he
knows what’s coming and that adds pressure, so let’s see if he can cope with
that.
“I always think about what I say, how I’m going to act and how I am portrayed
every time I open my mouth. In the first fight, I was portrayed as the bad
guy, but I’ve come across a lot more casual now.
“Today, I don’t need to antagonise Carl Froch. I want him to be at peace
because it is dawning on him that his day of reckoning is fast approaching.
He is going to have to face the inevitable. He is like a man on death row
and I can’t imagine that would be very nice.
“I know I can deal with the pressure. I’ve always been able to stay calm in
high-pressure situations. I never get nervous and I’m always very confident,
to the point where some people think I’m cocky.
“I’ll be in the zone on fight night, it doesn’t matter how many people are
there. It could be 200,000. Carl has boxed at a high level for a long time,
but time catches up with everyone.”
In an adjoining room, the unshakeable self-belief was mirrored by the
champion, a man who has campaigned at elite level for 12 fights
consecutively over six years.
“He looked a little bit subdued. I was expecting him to maybe to bring a bit
more to the table and try to get under my skin,” said Froch, who at 36 is
nine years Groves’s senior.
“I thought he would have one last-ditch effort, but I suppose that would have
been too predictable. I think he’s thought he’s lost all the way along on
the mind games, so whatever he said would have been irrelevant. His mind
games, me being mandated, it will be a third-round knockout.
“I’ve lost count of everything he’s said. And now he’s going to beat me with a
left hook. I’ve lost track of all the rubbish. He’s put himself in a
position where he’s told everyone that the first fight was a stonewall
robbery, but he knows when he looked in the mirror the following morning:
his face was all swollen, he had two black eyes and a swollen lip, and lumps
all over his head.
“The referee stopped the fight for that reason. He knows his legs were gone
and he knows that he was in trouble when the ref stopped the fight. He can
say what he wants and now I have been in this situation before where I know
that this is going to be a tough fight.”
The champion exuded an icy calm at every turn, the internal strength honed
from being in the same situation many times before. “When you prepare
really, really well you get that confidence. The fight is won or lost in the
preparation. And I’ve won the preparation.”
The weigh-in on Friday, when the two men face off, chests bared, nostrils
flared, could be a telling moment. The fight cannot come soon enough for
both of them.
Source Website: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/othersports/boxing/10863829/Carl-Froch-to-earn-8m-and-George-Groves-2m-from-Wembley-fight.html
Carl Froch and George Groves will clash at Wembley Stadium connected by EE in London on 31 May.
The huge super middleweight rematch for Froch’s WBA and IBF World titles
is set to break British boxing records as they look to settle their
bitter rivalry after their epic first encounter in Manchester.
Froch stopped Groves in the ninth round of their first meeting in
November after the challenger had floored the Nottingham star in the
opening round.
Also on the bill, James DeGale will face Brandon Gonzales in a a
title eliminator, with the winner going on to face either Groves or
Froch for the IBF & WBA Super middleweight titles.
Anthony Joshua will also be on the bill at Wembley and will fight Matt Legg.
A seat for the rematch is the hottest ticket in sport as general admission tickets sold out in one hour.
VIP packages priced at £1,500 are still available exclusively from Matchroom Boxing or by calling 01277 359900. The VIP package includes:
- Inner ringside seating
- Access to VIP area from 5.30 - 8.00pm
- Champagne reception
- Buffet
- Complimentary beer & wine
- Official souvenir programme
- Plus an hour in the VIP Area post fight with beer, wine & spirits
To register your interest in Club Wembley hospitality click here or for a private box click here.
Disabled and ambulant sales are via Wembley Stadium on 0844 980 0656 National Express will
be running services right to the stadium gates. Coaches will not depart
until the fight is over and the dust has settled - you won't miss a
minute guaranteed Source Website:http://www.wembleystadium.com/Events/2014/31-May-2014/Carl-Froch-v-George-Groves-Rematch
Challenger: Groves will be looking to take Froch's titles at Wembley
‘Saint’ George Groves has bared all in the ring before. He left it
all there against James DeGale, and again against Carl Froch (31-2).
In
what will be the biggest British fight ever, Groves will give
everything to take Froch’s IBF and WBA World super middleweight titles,
when they rematch at Wembley Stadium on May 31.
What do we know about the 26-year-old Londoner though? There’s a lot more to him than a bullish persona and a heavy set of fists that had Carl ‘The Cobra’ Froch reeling in the early rounds of their last encounter.
Find out more below:
1. Personal life
George
Groves was born March 26, 1988 in Hammersmith, west London. He’s still
in the area, too, living in neighbouring Isleworth with wife Sophie.
Sophie is a primary school teacher and Groves cites she is a calming
presence ringside. They’ve been together from the age of 19, but have
known each other since they were tots.
2. Early days
Groves’
earliest memory of boxing was staying up to watch the fights with his
dad, in particular the ill-fated bout between Gerald McClellan and Nigel
Benn in 1995. McClellan suffered massive brain damage at the hands of
Benn, and was left partially blinded. Despite its tragic ending, it
ignited a passion for the sport in a young Groves.
Action
Rematch: Groves had Froch on the ropes in Manchester
3. The Kickboxer
Groves was actually a kickboxer
before switching to boxing as a youngster. He regularly appeared on
Eurosport at the age of 13, winning four world junior championships and
an EKU title.
4. Amateur career
Groves was a member of
Dale Youth ABC as an amateur, alongside fierce rival James DeGale. Just
like DeGale and Carl Froch, Groves has won two senior ABA middleweight
titles; one in 2006, the other in 2007. The 2006 ABAs have a special
place in Groves’ heart, as it was the year he beat DeGale in their only
competitive bout as amateurs. Belts: Groves short career has already been dominated by success
5. Chelsea blues
Groves is a die-hard Chelsea fan.
Like Froch and his beloved Nottingham Forest, Groves is a regular
fixture at Stamford Bridge and has been presented on the pitch before.
He wears the club crest on the thigh of his shorts.
6. Precocious talent
Groves
signed with Hayemaker Promotions in 2008 and made his debut as a super
middleweight on the David Haye versus Monte Barrett undercard. He beat
Lithuanian Kirill Psonko on points in a six-round match-up.
It
wasn’t long before Groves was fighting at championship level. He faced
old Froch foe Charles Adamu (17-4) for the Commonwealth super
middleweight title on the Haye-Ruiz undercard in 2010. Despite it being
just his eighth professional fight, Groves TKO’d the Ghanaian in six.
Two
fights later, Groves went to war with the unbeaten Scot, Kenny Anderson
(12-0). The build-up to the fight had been an ill-tempered affair, with
an alleged relative of Anderson directing racist abuse towards Groves’
wife. There were also death threats against the Londoner and the fight
had to be moved to the M.E.N Arena in Manchester. Groves was dropped in
the early rounds, but rallied to score another sixth-round TKO.
7. DeGale bad blood
Groves long-standing rivalry with
James DeGale (10-0) was reignited when he became mandatory challenger
for DeGale’s British super middleweight title in 2011. The pair’s verbal
sparring typified a nasty build-up and the fight wasn’t much different.
Just like in the amateurs, Groves walked away with a close decision. So
close in fact, two judges scored it 115-113 in favour of Groves – a win
by the margin of a single round – while the other judge had it a draw
with a 114-114 card.
8. Promoters and coaches
George
Groves was until last week a promotional free agent after leaving Frank
Warren’s stable last year. He joined Warren from Haymaker Promotions in
2011, but it’s not always been a straightforward relationship – after
his victory over DeGale, DeGale actually got a shot at the European
title, while he defended his British championship against Paul Smith
(31-2), who he TKO’d in two rounds. By this point, tensions began to
fray between the two.
He’s now a promoted by the German-based Sauerland brothers, joining fellow Brit David Price on their international roster.
He
paired up with trainer Paddy Fitzpatrick after leaving long-time
trainer Adam Booth last autumn. They’ve known each other years though –
It was actually Fitzpatrick who recommended Groves to Booth, after the
Hayemaker head coach asked Fitzpatrick to check Groves out when he was
an amateur.
9. Articulate aggression
If George Groves was
to be awarded an honorary doctorate, it would be in psychology. In their
first Froch-Groves fight, Groves gained a significant psychological
edge over Froch during the fight’s build-up. Since then, he’s said he’d
“mentally bully” Froch ahead of their rematch. This has prompted Froch
to employ an Olympic psychologist to deal with pressure, but cracks in
his mental state have reappeared – the shove at the Wembley press
conference shows how unsettling Groves can be.
10. History boy
Groves will be taking part in the biggest
British fight of all time. 80,000 people will watch it at Wembley
Stadium – a record in post-war boxing – and revenues could go well past
the £20m mark. Broadcasters Sky expect more than 1m pay-per-view buys,
and it should rival Ricky Hatton’s record of 1.2m buys, set against
Floyd Mayweather Jr. in 2008. “I don’t think I’ll be able to appreciate
it until I’m long gone and retired,” Groves has said.
11. Nicked name
Unlike
a lot of fighters, Groves’ nickname ‘Saint’ is a fairly recent
acquisition. He toyed with names such as ‘Golden Grovesy’ and ‘King
George’, but it was David Haye that actually gave him the moniker,
‘Saint’.
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