George Groves announced Monday morning that he would undergo shoulder surgery. The procedure caused the WBA/IBO super middleweight champion to postpone his World Boxing Super Series super middleweight final against Callum Smith until at least July.
George Groves has relinquished the IBO title –– just days after picking up the belt. The Hammersmith fighter, who added the lightly-regarded trinket to his WBA Super world title at super-middleweight with a win over Chris Eubank Jr. last weekend, is understood to have refused to pay the sanctioning fee to the International Boxing Organisation in order to keep the belt.
George Groves will see a specialist having dislocated his shoulder in the win over Chris Eubank Jr, but remains adamant he will feature in the World Boxing Super Series final. Groves successfully defended his WBA world super middleweight title, while also taking Eubank Jr’s IBO belt, on points at the Manchester Arena on Saturday.
With George Groves (27-3, 20 KOs) and Chris Eubank (26-1, 20 early) set to go at it for the WBA Super World Super middleweight and IBO titles respectively on Saturday as well as Juergen Braehmer versus Callum Smith good to go in Germany next week the World Boxing Super Series 168lb tournament is well on course for its June 2 final at the O2 Arena in London.
Kalle Sauerland is enjoying his role as the Chief Boxing Officer of the World Boxing Series because it allows him to take in FOTY candidates such as Oleksandr Usyk against Mairis Briedis, for the WBO and WBC cruiserweight titles respectively, and Murat Gassiev versus Yunier Dorticos, which united the IBF and WBA Super world belts. George Groves against Chris Eubank, for WBA Super world middleweight and IBO belts, and Callum Smith and Juergen Braehmer are all set to go over the next two weekends.
Kalle Sauerland has informed Boxing Scene of a date for the diary of a number of British fight fans. The chief boxing officer of the World Boxing Super Series, who is one half of Team Sauerland along with his brother Nisse, recently revealed the date and venue for the final of the Ali Trophy tournament in the super-middleweight division.
WBO super middleweight titlist, Gilberto 'Zurdo' Ramirez (37-0, 25 KOs) - who recently defeated the overmatched Habib Ahmed in six rounds this past weekend in Corpus Christi, Texas, has made it clear his desire to eventually face the winner of the ongoing World Boxing Super Series tournament winner at 168.
Super middleweight Jesse Hart, who faces Thomas Awinbono on Saturday night from the Bank of America Center in Corpus Christi, Texas (in a bout that will be aired on ESPNews) is not particularly impressed or interested in the World Boxing Super Series tournament that is taking place in his weight class.
Denis Lebedev (30-2, 22 KOs), 38 years old, is not planning to retire any time soon, according to his manager Vadim Kornilov. On Thursday, the World Boxing Association (WBA) announced that Lebedev was no longer the 'super' champion at cruiserweight and is now listed as the 'champion in recess.'
Tickets are on sale now to the general public for the upcoming showdown between two-time Light Heavyweight World Champion Sergey "Krusher" Kovalev (31-2-1, 27 KOs) versus Igor Mikhalkin (21-1, 9 KOs) and WBA Light Heavyweight World Champion Dmitry Bivol (12-0, 10 KOs) versus Sullivan Barrera (21-1, 14 KOs), which takes place on Saturday, March 3 at The Theater at Madison Square Garden. Tickets for this exciting event are priced from $50 to $300 and will be available through ticketmaster.com and the Madison Square Garden box office.