George Groves and Chris Eubank Jr engaged in a bloody war.
On Saturday night, George Groves stopped the hype of Chris Eubank Jr in a thrilling war scored 117-112, 116-112 and 115-113 by the three British judges. Highlights of the bloody war have been posted by World Boxing Super Series.
Leading into the fight, Eubank had been called “a machine,” for his penchant to take punishment and keep moving forward. He follows in the great shadow of his eccentric faher, the former two-weight world champion. This fight was full of thrills and drama. In the later rounds Groves dislocated his shoulder and Eubank desperately swung on him to the finish, but to no avail. Groves retained his super-middleweight crown with a fantastic performace.
Groves commanded the early going with his jab and technical footwork. In the third round, the fighters clashed heads, which cut Eubank’s eyebrow. This seemed to spark an upturn for Eubank, and he made the fight a thriller, but a late surge after Groves dislocated his arm, was not enough to save him from a unanimous decision.
Groves’s technical ability deserves praise. Although Eubank was arguably more gifted, he looked sloppy and wide against the precision and experience of groves.
This marks Eubannk’s second defeat in 28 contests. He will certainly be back, likely down at Middleweight. With some luck he could even find himself facing the likes of, Gennady Golovkin and Saul Canelo Alvarez in coming years.
As for Groves, first order of business is dealing with the injury. In the video he says:
“The left shoulder just sort of pops out. It goes straight back in and I thought ‘oh, that’s handy’ but as soon as I throw another jab it pops outs again and doesn’t go back in. The medical advice is to go straight to the A&E and have a look. They did, they gave him a few x-rays to put it back in. No pain now, I’m sure that’s a good sign. I see a specialist when I get home today…we’ll look to see what the recovery time is, but, you know, I’m a fast healer…I’m in a confident frame of mind.”
Watch the highlights from the bout below.
We look forward to seeing him defend his belt once again late in 2018.
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