Haye on His Black Eye: George Groves Speared Me in The Eye!

By Carlos Boogs

Former two-division world champion David Haye (27-2, 25 KOs) was sporting a black eye during Tuesday's open workout, as the Hayemaker prepares for Saturday's fight against Arnold 'The Cobra' Gjergjaj (29-0, 21 KOs) at the O2 Arena in London.

According to Haye, he blasted with a very had jab from stablemate George Groves (23-3, 18KOs), who is preparing for his super middleweight clash with Martin Murray on June 25th, as part of the Anthony Joshua-Dominic Breazeale undercard.

Both Haye and Groves are trained by up and coming coach Shane McGuigan.

Haye was very impressed with Groves' speed and the accuracy of his jab.

"'Saint George Groves speared me in the eye. I was doing a little bit of technical sparring with him a few days back, and his jab is quite impressive," Haye told BoxingScene.com's Declan Taylor.

McGuigan told BoxingScene that Haye was not unloading his power shots on Groves and they were focused on speed and technical aspects. McGuigan notes that Groves shows no fear in the sparring sessions. They felt that is was essential to use Groves for those technical details, as Gjergjaj utilizes a quick jab in his arsenal. 

"We got George in last week to keep it quick, keep it sharp. If you can get around George Groves' jab, you can get around Arnold 'The Cobra's jab. It was five or six rounds of real speed stuff but David was not hitting him full whack, but he has to shoot a jab every now and again. George is one of the bravest lads that I've ever seen," McGuigan said.

This will be the second fight of the year for Haye, who snapped a near four year layoff in January when he came back with an easy one round knockout of Mark De Mori. If he wins on Saturday, former WBO champion Shannon Briggs, who fights on Haye's undercard, is the likely next opponent.