ON A dreary Wednesday afternoon, James DeGale and George Groves sit a couple of feet away from each other in the otherwise empty upstairs function room of a west London pub. They are about to conduct a joint interview for the first time in almost a decade and the production team are putting the finishing … Read more
HAVING become undisputed champion in two weight classes, where does Oleksandr Usyk now sit in the mythical pound-for-pound rankings? Listing the top 10 fighters in the world splits the boxing community, with some insisting it’s a pointless exercise while others enjoy the debate as to who is the best fighter in the world. The sport … Read more
By Elliot Worsell MOST of them looked the same. They were bald, as wide as they were long, and firmly of the belief that a scowl says a thousand words. As if created from the same recipe, or mould, these men would stand with their arms crossed, biceps bulging inside a too-small polo shirt, and … Read more
By Elliot Worsell THE headline’s importance should never be underestimated. It is especially crucial in today’s media landscape, where many readers are reluctant to look beyond it. For some, the headline is the article itself or the trigger for commenting without reading further. News outlets now prioritize clicks, making a strong headline essential to stand … Read more
By Elliot Worsell WHEN George Groves and James DeGale agreed to meet in May 2011, they were swayed by a couple of things. The first, quite naturally, was the size of the payday, significant given only British and Commonwealth super-middleweight titles were on the line. The second, meanwhile, was an awareness that this, as a … Read more
By Elliot Worsell SPEND time in a boxer’s changing room on fight night and you will come away not only certain there are few environments as tense or nerve-wracking but equally certain the success of a boxer has as much to do with controlling their mind ahead of a fight as controlling their body once … Read more
By Elliot Worsell (PART I of The Intervention: Froch vs. Groves can be found here; PART II, meanwhile, can be found here) AFTER Chapter VI NO longer alone, with him both surrounded and human again it is almost impossible to tell whether the boxer on the plastic chair has won or lost. The slight cut … Read more
Elliot Worsell BEFORE Part I: Waiting Room A waiting room in all but name, what the room waits for on fight night is context. That and a boxer. It is the boxer, in fact, who will provide the room with both its context and its story. It is they, the boxer, who will in time … Read more
The doors to the George Groves Boxing Club have been open for well over a year now and we are in the business of growing our show. We love it and we want it to be as big as possible. We do it to deliver a bit of joy into people’s ears but now our … Read more
