George Groves hasn’t participated in a professional fight since 2018, but it hasn’t been so long that he fails to remember the quality of the super middleweight division he inhabited back then.
Groves’ career overlapped the excellent Super Six World Boxing Classic, and he counted among his contemporaries participants Andre Ward, Mikkel Kessler, Jermain Taylor and Arthur Abraham, as well as some formidable non-participants. Groves captured the WBA interim super middleweight title from Fedor Chudinov in 2017, he holds a win over Chris Eubank Jnr, and he retired after suffering a knockout loss to Callum Smith.
But Groves, who retired with a record of 28-4 (20 KOs), made his name in the sport with two thrilling fights against Carl Froch (another Super Six veteran). Although Groves lost both starts against Froch, the bouts became iconic in British boxing lore.
Recently asked about the current state of the super middleweight division, Groves noted the presence of Saul “Canelo” Alvarez – and little else.
“Well, it's not as exciting as it used to be,” Groves told BoxingScene via Lottoland. “Canelo came in after me and cleaned up really quickly, completed the division, and there is no one else rising up, I think.”
Even Alvarez himself may be identified only as a super middleweight of the moment. He spent the first half of his career in lower divisions, and he has taken fights as high up the ladder as light heavyweight. Yet his presence in the meantime has removed much of the intrigue from the division.
“Canelo is essentially just too good,” Groves said. “Nothing's competitive with him. It's not exciting.”
And with fighters such as David Benavidez and David Morrell Jnr having moved up from 168 to 175lbs, a void has been left at super middleweight.
“It's not Canelo's fault,” Groves said. “He's a very entertaining and exciting fighter. He's a great character for boxing, the biggest draw in the sport, I think. He's run out of opposition. He had to go up to light heavyweight and got beat by [Dmitry] Bivol, but that was obviously a step too far.
“The division just isn't really flying for me. I'm not that gripped.”
Alvarez will now face Terence Crawford in September. That bout will be for the undisputed super middleweight title. Up-and-comers waiting in the wings – Diego Pacheco, Osleys Iglesias and Christian M’Billi, among others – should get a crack at Alvarez, and possibly even Crawford, in the twilights of their careers. But Groves is unsure who will emerge.
“I don't know who the next super middleweight star is,” Groves said. “I don't know who's there to beat Canelo. … If you look at Canelo's options, he's the No. 1 in the division; it's Crawford, who's a welterweight or junior middleweight at best. They're talking about Eubank Jnr now, who's a middleweight – but has fought at super middleweight. Maybe Jake Paul. I don't know.”
Lucas Ketelle is the author of “Inside the Ropes of Boxing,” a guide for young fighters, a writer for BoxingScene and a member of the Boxing Writers Association of America. Find him on X at @BigDogLukie.