The Saint and the Sinner: Groves vs Cox

Wembley hosts the first domestic clash of the WBSS and features WBA champ George Groves in his first defence against rising contender Jamie Cox. The winner will go on to face Eubank Jr in the semi-final after he secured his spot with a devastating knockout of Avni Yildirim in the 3rd round.

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Groves, who finally became a World champion at his fourth attempt in May has been on the path to becoming the best in his weight class. Cox has been hunting the world level stage for some time with gaps in his career, but will finally get his shot. 

Groves being the favourite in this contest for good reason; he has more experience, the confidence of being the champion and the better boxer. Saying all this, Jamie is incredibly underrated and has been for some time. People have written him off for this fight when Cox has been in serious training for this fight, he knows its his shot and he’s going to give it everything he’s got.

Groves beat Fedor Chudinov in May with a 6th round stoppage to claim the WBA Super crown. He has been on what is known as the path to ‘rebuilding his career since his two losses to Carl Froch and his third title chance against Badou Jack. With Shane McGuigan as his trainer, they worked together to climb up the rankings of the WBA, winning the international title and defending it twice against Martin Murray and Eduard Gutknecht.

Jamie’s career has been more of a quiet one and he could prove to be the dark horse. Originally he started competing at welterweight, then light-middleweight winning the Commonwealth title, until a length of inactiveness saw him move up to super middleweight in 2015. Only one fight in 2016 left Cox inactive again until he signed with Matchroom. He claimed the vacant WBA Continental title the same night and stage that Groves won his World title. A clash of heads in the ninth round meant the scorecards were needed early and it was an unexpected disappointing return for Jamie Cox. With only the nine rounds in the bank for Cox in the entirety of 2017, he competed in two four rounders to remove any signs of ring rust and prepare for the WBSS.

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A question that springs to mind is if Jamie Cox is World level. Having never headlined a show before and never attempted a world title shot, we don’t know what to expect from Cox. He has only completed a 12 round fight once back in 2011; when he captured the Commonwealth Super Welterweight Title.

This is Cox’s time to shine and his chance to prove himself on the World stage. Groves is very much experienced at the World level now and is expected to come through this fight easily. Both will want to win convincingly after Eubank’s victory last weekend. Really we should be thanking Eubank for his performance because this fight just got a lot more interesting.

What’s your prediction? Let us know in the comments.