It is understandable, given it took George Groves four attempts to win a world title, that he can recall the boxing lows as much as the highs.

Defeats against Carl Froch (twice), a split decision loss to Badou Jack, and then – finally – victory over Fedor Chudinov to claim the WBC super middleweight title meant Groves survived as he ran a boxing gauntlet that saw him eventually achieve his goal of winning a title.

Now 37, Groves won 28 times in his career, scoring 20 stoppages and losing only four bouts.

His final fight, in Saudi Arabia, was the first big fight that got the ball rolling there.

Groves now trains and manages young cruiserweight Lucas Roehrig and is enjoying his involvement in that area of the sport.

But he doesn’t forget the good times of his amateur boxing career and the camaraderie he had with his teammates, all the way through to his crowning glory and even losing the big rematch with Froch at London’s Wembley Stadium.

“There's happy times as an amateur and then also some sad and stressful times. Loads of exciting times turning professional, [having] David Haye as a mentor, working with Adam Booth – they were already at the top and rising again – and going with them and learning. The saga with Carl Froch. That was really exciting, as well as, maybe not so much nerve-wracking, because it wasn't like nerves, but there was a lot of unknown. But it was like every day you felt like you was walking down the stairs in the dark, you’re tip-toeing along, thinking, ‘What's going to happen next?'”

Groves was a nosiness renegade. He was largely self-managed and moved to whichever promoter suited him the best.

When it was all said and done, Groves did not assume he would stay involved in the sport. But he is not only involved with Roehrig, he is also often asked to offer his opinion on radio and TV broadcasts.

“When I retired from boxing, I thought, ‘I’m never going to be in boxing at all,’ but then you realize, ‘Well, actually, my USP [unique selling point] is boxing’ – it's who you are – ‘and maybe I've got a little bit left to give.’ So, yeah, being able to sit ringside, call the fights, watch the fights, study the fights, being in the gym has been great. In terms of watching boxing, I don't know, I think maybe as years go on, it’s never as exciting as it was.”

As a fan – before the boxing business enveloped him – Groves enjoyed the big fights with the likes of Joe Calzaghe and Ricky Hatton. 

“I was never mad on [Floyd] Mayweather, and the Mayweather effect and what he actually did for boxing,” Groves added. “Maybe I was a touch too young to have properly grown up on Naz [Naseem Hamed] and [Chris] Eubank and [Nigel] Benn and [Frank] Bruno and that. My guy was Hatton. Hatton was so exciting, and then when he fought Kostya Tszyu. … Calzaghe was brilliant, but Hatton was the one who felt really exciting. And then I turned pro, and I'm going to say, David Haye was one of the most charismatic heavyweights we've had – polarizing a lot of the time. I remember being in that team and it felt like ‘Entourage’ meets ‘Inbetweeners,’ because he was balling. But we were the boxing nerds. It was an amazing thing to be around.”

By the end, though, Groves was exhausted by boxing.

“There's two things where I probably was burnt out. I was burnt out in the end,” he admitted. “I remember all the time being hungry and tired, hungry and tired, and it would be that point where maybe a bit of the motivation and the desire had sort of left me, and it wasn't the same. Nothing was exciting, you become tired. And I've been through quite a lot in 10 years. By the time I got to the end, I'd reached the dizzying heights of Wembley Stadium; nauseating losses of getting knocked out of Wembley Stadium; the numbness of, like, losing in Vegas, and it felt like no one cared; and rebuilding. And then when I'd done my shoulder against Eubank, that was the toughest point in my career. I think my wife was pregnant, Sophie. So we had Teddy, who was under two. Albie was on his way, and my mother-in-law moved in, my father-in-law moved in to help – they're not together, by the way.”

You get the picture.

Then Groves dislocated his shoulder. Albie was born. He was training to get the weight off and he knew he was cheating on his diet in a bid to balance his emotions.

The shoulder rehab was hard and added an extra session to his already crammed daily routines.

“I had an exit strategy for boxing, so I was ready to leave boxing,” he said. At the time, he just hoped his career wouldn’t fizzle out.

“I always thought, I'm retiring at 30, and I love that idea,” Groves said. “Leave them with something else on the table.”

Instead, he told his advisor: “Nah, man, I am done.” And he stuck to it.

“I'm really happy about that, and I've got to be honest with you, I haven't had proper itchy knuckles since,” Groves said. “There was a point where, in my early 30s, I remember saying to Sophie, being like, ‘Thirty-five’s the cut-off, because it's all downhill from there.’ And then 35 came, and I was like, ‘Oh, bollocks, I can't actually joke about coming back now, because I am too old.’”

But the journey continues in a different role, as a coach and mentor, and his passion is evident.

“I'm in the gym, I'm coaching a young pro, and it's all part of the process,” Groves said. “And you're happy with what you had. It could have been better, and you can be suicidal. Or that, it could have been better, but it could have been a lot worse, right? And I've always got to have that in mind: What I achieved in my career is a fraction of what I thought I was going to achieve when I was 11 years of age. And if I keep going back to that, I will be depressed, clinically depressed. But it could have been worse. It could have been a lot worse.”

And Groves might say it tongue-in-cheek, but he also says it with a degree of sincerity when he concludes, “Yeah. I single-handedly changed the face of British boxing.”

It wasn’t just Froch and Groves and Wembley Stadium and 80,000. It was the pre-fight patter and feuds with Froch and DeGale that marked Groves as one of Britain’s most colorful boxing characters. He knew how to sell a feud and how to sell a fight.

“I'm a really good imitator to lean into that, but I know I'm part of a story where it was a big story,” Groves said. “And now ... well, I suppose where stadium fights really came back. Before me, there was Haye-Chisora at West Ham [Upton Park] and stuff like that, but, you know, 80,000 at Wembley – it was a big deal, wasn't it? So, and it didn't go my way. It would be lovely if it did go my way, because then I'd be saying that I could be really proud of it. But I'm still proud of it. And I did my bit, and it's up to me now. I don't chase trying to stay relevant, but I do really enjoy working within boxing, and hopefully now, I can do a good job.”

Tris Dixon covered his first amateur boxing fight in 1996. The former editor of Boxing News, he has written for a number of international publications and newspapers, including GQ and Men’s Health, and is a board member for the Ringside Charitable Trust and the Ring of Brotherhood. He has been a broadcaster for TNT Sports and hosts the popular “Boxing Life Stories” podcast. Dixon is a British Boxing Hall of Famer, an International Boxing Hall of Fame elector, a BWAA award winner, and is the author of five boxing books, including “Damage: The Untold Story of Brain Trauma in Boxing” (shortlisted for the William Hill Sportsbook of the Year), “Warrior: A Champion’s Search for His Identity” (shortlisted for the Sunday Times International Sportsbook of the Year) and “The Road to Nowhere: A Journey Through Boxing’s Wastelands.” You can reach him @trisdixon on X and Instagram.