George Groves turns his fire on Chris Eubank Snr ahead of eagerly awaited World Boxing Super Series semi-final
In one lengthy tirade, Groves described the 51-year-old as a 'relic', claimed he would have beaten the former two-weight world champion in his pomp
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Your support makes all the difference.After months of verbal jousting with Chris Eubank Jr, George Groves has turned the attack to his famous father of the same name.
In one lengthy tirade, Groves described the 51-year-old as a 'relic', claimed he would have beaten the former two-weight world champion in his pomp, and suggested that he will be unemployed by Sunday morning.
Groves puts his WBA super-middleweight title on the line at the Manchester Arena on Saturday night when he faces Eubank Jr in the World Boxing Super Series semi-final. He believes it will be the fight which finally drives a wedge between the father-son act from Brighton.
“They have a strange training set up down there and the dad is obviously involved,” said Groves.
“He just wants to be loved really and I think he has lost his grip on reality. He's a relic.
“Junior wants to step out of his dad's shadow. If that's the case, leave him at home. You don't need to have him around. He's either scared of taking that step on his own or he can't get rid of his dad. Either way that's a problem for him.
“But after this fight, when I win, I believe Junior will sack the dad and move back down to middleweight.”
This fight, at the 12st, super-middleweight limit, seems to favour the naturally bigger man in Groves but he has been made the underdog by bookmakers despite his size advantage and experience in fights of this magnitude.
The pair know each other well having sparred countless rounds together behind closed doors. The sessions began in 2011 as Groves prepared to face James DeGale and before Eubank had even had a professional contest.
Eubank was paid around £500 a week for the sparring and was put up in the Park Plaza Hotel which was just behind the Vauxhall gym in which Groves trained. In the end, however, Groves says Eubank Sr made the situation untenable.
"I had Junior in sparring for DeGale,” Groves recalled. “He was available and cheap.
“The dad was a good test of my mental stability. That's partly why my coach at the time, Adam Booth, brought him in. He was worried if I could keep my composure and thought if I can put up with the dad, I'm mentally strong.
"Ultimately, that's why I stopped sparring Junior because I couldn't put up with the dad. It wasn't worth it to put up with the rubbish which came out of his mouth.
"The son was brilliant. He would come in moody, do his rounds and leave. If I bashed him up, I might get a smile. If he thought he did well, he would walk out with a swagger.”
But Groves believes he left a mark on Eubank Sr which is now evident in the way Junior conducts himself.
He added: “His dad was a bit in awe of me and Adam Booth back in the day. I wouldn't have said 'me too' at the time but going back I believe it was me as well.
“Little things in the way Junior behaves is similar to how I was trying to behave for the DeGale fight. He's trying to make this one into a rivalry. This isn't a rivalry. A rivalry is me and James DeGale. That is ingrained in people now.
"Obviously the rivalry generated between me and [Carl] Froch, that organically happened. He says he's my biggest fight yet, he's not.”
Eubank Jr is adamant that victory on Saturday night will take him a huge step closer to his current goal of proving himself as the world's best super-middleweight. What's more, The 27-year-old believes it will help him to finally emerge from his father's shadow.
Eubank Sr is considered one of the best British boxers in history after winning world titles in two weights during a career which ended in 1998 on 45 wins, five defeats and two draws.
That ledger was defined, in part, by his memorable victories in his all-British tussles with Michael Watson (twice) and Nigel Benn during the early 90s. Despite that, Groves insists he would win the fantasy fight between the pair because Senior would have struggled as part of the current era.
"I haven't seen much of him,” Groves said. “but I'm sure I would have beaten him. He had enough losses on his record and I don't fall for his bullshit.
"Back then, a lot of people got annoyed by his gimmicks and fought with emotion. I wouldn't do that.
"He was about posturing, being heavy-handed. He probably wasn't much of a trainer. James DeGale called him a domestic world champion last week, which I thought was quite good.
"That was a different era. Maybe he wouldn't have survived in this era, maybe he would have got beat. Maybe people would have seen through him because in this era, you have to step up.
"His son had to step up because in this era, you can't get away with too many hand-picked opponents."
The WBA super-middleweight title and a place in the World Boxing Super Series final is at stake. The fight is less than 48 hours away.
Groves v Eubank is live on ITV Box Office.
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