George Groves says luck won’t come into it as he bids to finally rule the world

Defeat | Groves (left) lost to Badou Jack
Ethan Miller/Getty Images

George Groves says luck will have nothing to do with it when he takes on Fedor Chudinov in his fourth attempt to win on the world stage.

The Londoner has lost three times in his 28-fight professional career and only when going for a world title. But with the vacant WBA super-middleweight crown on the line in Sheffield on Saturday, he said he would ignore that fact.

“People are saying fourth time lucky but luck won’t come into it,” he told Standard Sport. “I came face to face with him for the first time yesterday and I’m taller than him, I’ve got a bigger reach and I’m a bit wider. So my only luck is that I go into the fight with all the advantage.”

Groves admits there have been demons to contend with getting back into the ring as his last opponent, Eduard Gutknecht, is still in a coma. He says: “Selfishly, I try not to think about it too much.”

Similarly dispelled from his mind is what is at stake, arguably his best and, by his reckoning, last chance to be world champion, having twice missed out to Carl Froch and also to Badou Jack. “In my mind, this is not a world title fight,” he said. “I will approach it not even like an eliminator but a freshen-up fight.

“In the past, I’ve made mistakes thinking too far ahead. I was certain against Froch both times I would win and my brain just couldn’t compute the fact I didn’t afterwards. So it’s a dangerous game to look too far ahead.”

Froch said this week he believed his former foe needed the victory over Chudinov to finally get over his double defeat.

And Groves conceded: “I’ve said the same thing to people in the past. Those were the biggest lows of my career and they were hard to understand, hard to take.

“I don’t know if winning is the answer but I’ll certainly feel a million times better when I win tomorrow night.”

Bookies have Groves as the odds-on favourite but the Hammersmith fighter said: “I don’t have a right to be world champion. It’s very prestigious and sadly no-one’s just going to give it to me.

“But it’s a bit like Christmas. You know what’s coming on the day and you know it’s going to be big. Saturday night’s my Christmas.”

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