George Groves' mananger Adam Booth has had his last escape route out of a British Super-Middleweight title fight against Champion James DeGale blocked by the British Boxing Board of Control.
With purse bids set by the Board for Wednesday 9th February for the big DeGale-Groves showdown, Booth, who has called out DeGale from day one, attempted to delay proceedings by a further month in a letter to the Board
This request was swiftly rejected by the Boards Stewards' and purse bids will remain on the date advised.
DeGale's promoter Frank Warren tried to make the fight prior to going to purse bids but encountered countless demands from Booth, many of which Warren accommodated, but in the end it became clear that Booth did not want to make the fight - hence his 'last resort' letter to the Board.
Groves is reportedly fighting in Los Angeles on 5th March, but why is he taking a fight there when a bigger fight against DeGale awaits him?
On his own website Groves says, "If one of us backs out of this fight now, it's going to look ridiculous and all the hype and all the verbal that's gone on beforehand will have been for nothing."
Roll on Wednesday 9th February...