George Groves says James DeGale is a phony who has been wrapped in cotton wool - and will be exposed when they meet in the ring.
Groves convinced he will expose bitter rival DeGale in the ring
His trainer says he could be the best British boxer ever. Many experts think he is likely to become Britain's first Olympic gold medalist to win a world title. But to George Groves, James DeGale is a phony.
To Groves, he was not the best fighter at their amateur club Dale Youth, he was not the best fighter at the Beijng games and he is by no means the best fighter contesting the British and Commonwealth super-middleweights titles at the 02 on May 21st, live on
Sky Box Office HD.
Groves is not foolish enough to dismiss DeGale completely. He admits he boxed well to beat Paul Smith in Liverpool but scoffs at the belief of Jim McDonnell that he could surpass the likes of Lennox Lewis, Naseem Hamed, Nigel Benn and Joe Calzaghe and become a modern-day great.
He makes no attempt to run down his ability even though the pair dislike each other deeply, but he does take exception to the hype he sees around the current golden boy of British boxing.
It may sound like sour grapes from a man who was overlooked for the Great Britain squad having beaten DeGale and then had to watch on from home as he struck gold in 2008, but watching DeGale from a distance is something Groves has done for some seven years now.
And he believes the boxing world will come round to his way of thinking on May 21st.
"James has been wrapped in cotton wool," he told
skysports.com.
"Ok, he was sent to Liverpool to box Paul Smith in his backyard which was pretty tough but if he could sell a ticket, I'm sure that would've been in London.
"He is a fighter who is being told something by so many people and it's just not accurate; them telling him he's world-class - he's not; telling him he's the best for 20 years - he's not; is all good for me because when we get in that ring I'm going to be the person who exposes him.
" If I'd grown up believing something, believing these people around me telling me this stuff and if I get in the ring and it doesn't happen, if I can't do this stuff that I've been told, and I'm not as good as I've been told, I'd start doubting myself - and it would take a long time to recover from that."
Stomach
DeGale certainly looked the more agitated when the pair clashed on
Ringside the day the fight was announced and even weeks on, bristles at the mention of his rival's name while Groves remains the calmer of the two and has no problem talking about him objectively.
He laughs at the insults that have been thrown his way in front of the cameras, the suit, the bad breath, the ginger jibes.
He has just moved in with his fiancee so life outside the sport is good. The colour of his hair is not news to him, the digs something he has lived with growing up. So too is DeGale's behaviour.
"He's just the sort of guy you just have to stomach, have to take," says Groves.
"We were never tight. Like he says, we never hung out we just boxed at Dale Youth and it's a real close-nit club, a tiny little gym, so you're all close together.
"He was the character he is now, just to a lesser degree, so I always used to edge away from him.
That is, says Groves, because he saw back then what he has been confronted with ever since this fight was confirmed.
Much is being made of the fact that DeGale has not yet endured a crisis in his 10 professional fights, simply because he has been too good for his opponents.
Aura
Groves is expected to give him his toughest test yet and while he might not have the silky skills of his old gym-mate, the younger man believes it will suit him down to the ground if their upcoming war turns into a battle of wills.
"I know a lot about him and he will know physically you can get yourself into shape but when it's time to quit, who's going to quit first?" he says.
"He knows it's going to be him. Whenever we've been together, he knows I can dig deeper than him and I'll always dig deeper than him.
"I'm talking about when we used to run together, when we used to spar together. Anything in a gym environment when we competed, he couldn't beat me. He knows that, too.
"Once he gets beat he's going to lose that aura around him, that invincibility, this 'I'm the best fighter for 20 years, I'm like Floyd Mayweather, these fighters come alone once in a while'; all that 'I've got the heart to play the part' crap.
"He's going to be thinking 'why the f*** did I say I've got the heart to play the part when I'm in here getting bashed up? I've got nowhere to go when I get bashed up'.
"And that is when the panic is going to kick in."
Content
Inside information should not be under-estimated either. Groves saw first-hand the power of knowledge when stablemate David Haye made a mockery of former friend Audley Harrison's boasts last year.
He does not expect this particular gold medallist to surrender as meekly of course, but he does expect him to go be confronted by the same demons that ultimately did for Harrison last December.
Harrison was at breaking point at the weigh-in as Haye smiled and sniped his way through the final act of a long and public feud and come the fight itself, froze before folding in the third.
Groves and Haye may share a gym and may have spent four weeks training in Miami together, but they do not share the same lust for winding people up. Groves does not "get off on it" like his heavyweight friend.
Even though he has perhaps won on points in their first two meetings in front of the press, he has no intention of spending more time with DeGale than he has to ahead of the fight. He doesn't need to wind him up, he says.
That was clear when they returned to Dale Youth for a press conference this week. While DeGale took centre stage Groves was content to sit back and soak it all up and used his words sparingly.
Genius
And that is not just because he cannot stand the sight of him, but also because he believes he has already won the psycholigical battle that has settled many a grudge match before the first bell has sounded.
"Can a fight be won before a fight? 100 per cent," he says.
"Everything I did that first press day ratttled him and it can't be that I'm just a genius that worked out exactly what needed to be done.
"I just think my presence just rattles him. We've had so much time apart, I'd made the assumption that he'd grown as a human being, but he hasn't made that assumption for me.
"But even when I was 18 and beat him I wasn't the kid he was referring to - I don't know who this person is.
"As time's gone on he's manipulated the history we've had to suit him. He's built up a false image of me.
"He thinks I'm a child still. It's the only way he can deal with it.
