Olympic champion DeGale can't resist a jab at Groves' shiner

By Jeff Powell

George Groves is sporting a belter of a black eye little more than two weeks before his grudge fight with Olympic gold medallist James DeGale.

The shiner was on display yesterday as the one-time amateur buddies turned bitter rivals went back to their roots at the tiny Dale Youth Club gym in Notting Hill prior to their British and Commonwealth supermiddleweight title fight at the O2 Arena on May 21.

Eye-catching: George Groves with his shiner

Eye-catching: George Groves with his shiner

Groves dismissed the swelling and discolouring around his left eye by saying: 'It's just one of those things that happen in sparring.'

DeGale prodded away verbally at the puffiness, saying: 'It goes to prove what I've always known - he's got a leaky defence. If this is what can happen to him in the gym, imagine what that eye is going to feel like after a couple of rounds being hit by me.'

DeGale called his rival 'a moron and a joke', while Groves said: 'Talk like that tells you why me and almost everyone doesn't like him. He thinks he can look down on us.'

Carl Froch will get his first major TV exposure on June 4 when Sky Sports will show his Super Six semifinal against Glenn Johnson.