Dirrell: George Groves Has Not Earned Title Shot Yet

By Edward Chaykovsky

WBC super middleweight champion Anthony Dirrell is not too thrilled with the World Boxing Council ordering him to face mandatory challenger George Groves in the near future. Dirrell will be allowed a voluntary defense in the first quarter of 2015 and then the winner of that fight will have to defend the belt against Groves or vacate the title.

Dirrell wants Groves to further prove himself, after the British star suffered back to back knockout defeats to Carl Froch. Groves has since won two in a row.

"Why would you get a shot if you got knocked out twice? He's a good fighter but you got knocked out twice. You need to prove yourself. You haven't fought anybody yet to prove yourself and won. He still has to prove himself. You have to fight, that's how you prove yourself. He got knocked out twice. Who deserves a shot after that? That's like me saying, if he had the championship and I got knocked out twice by Carl Froch, they wouldn't want to see me fight the champion. Vice versa it's the same thing," Dirrell said to Daily Mail.

And although Groves is a much bigger star in the UK than Dirrell is in the United States, the champion has zero interest in traveling across the ocean for a Groves defense and he doesn't care how much money is offered to do so.

"Never. Why have I got to go over there to fight him if we have to fight? He has to come and see me. That's just how it is. I'm not going to go over there just because. That's not how it works. Floyd [Mayweather] never went anywhere and he's selling out arenas. You've got to come to the U.S. to fight, to get your name known, before you can you're somebody," Dirrell said.