By Terence Dooley
Adam Booth guided super-middleweight prospect George Groves to his twelfth professional win on Saturday. 'Saint' George showcased his skills on the undercard of Gary Sykes’s victory over Carl Johanneson at Huddersfield Leisure Centre, halting Ghana's Daniel Adotey Allotey in four rounds and becoming the first man to stop the free-swinging southpaw. Groves moves to 12-0 (10), he is close to finalizing a clash with fierce rival James DeGale.
David Coldwell, Hayemaker's Head of Boxing, won the right to stage the British 168lb title showdown after tabling a massive £400,000 bid yet is said to have verbally agreed a deal to allow Frank Warren to host the fight.
The BBBoC are considering the new proposal. Indeed, there could be movement on the date and venue early next week, with the expectation that the clash will land on the undercard of Nathan Cleverly's WBO light-heavyweight title showdown against Juergen Braehmer at London's Wembley Arena on May 21.
“We worked on a few things in there. This fight is leading to something,” said Booth when analyzing the win over Adotey. “George has now taken on a southpaw and that is what we need because we are eleven weeks away from a fight against a southpaw in James DeGale.”
“There will be something soon. We are working on it and there are emails flying about between us [Team Groves and Frank Warren] so we hope to work something out. This fight is going to happen,” he insisted.
Adam also trains and manages David Haye. The WBA heavyweight title holder looks set to take on Wladimir Klitschko after news broke earlier today that the Ukrainian has been forced to withdraw from his ill-fated April 30th IBF, IBO and WBO title defence against London’s Derek Chisora due to an abdominal injury. Booth confirmed that talks between the two camps had continued despite Wlad twice signing on to defend against ‘Del Boy’.
He said, “We've obviously stated our intentions of fighting Wladimir. David had set his own time scale, the Chisora fight wasn't standing in the way, and we were still in discussions with them. We're in contact with them on a daily basis and things are going better than ever. Things look like they're coming round now but there is still a lot of work to do.”
There is now every possibility that Klitschko will meet Haye, with July 2nd the consensus date, allowing both Haye and Wlad the time needed to set the venue, promote the event and go through a rigorous training camp. Booth is optimistic about securing showdowns with both Wlad and his older brother, WBC holder Vitali, telling me that Haye could be two wins away from securing an impressive legacy.
“Course he is, David would retire as a former cruiserweight champion and the heavyweight champion of the world,” mused Booth when asked if Haye is capable of beating both brothers.
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