• Carl Froch v George Groves

Froch not as big as he thinks he is - Groves

George Groves is adamant he earned his world title shot against Carl Froch, stating 'The Cobra' is only a "big fighter when he is in big fights".

Groves and Froch battle it out for the Nottingham fighter's WBA and IBF super-middleweight titles in Manchester on November 23.

The challenger believes he will dethrone champion Froch, who Groves described as "vulnerable", and that his rival Brit is not a pay-per-view fighter - despite what he may think.

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"This isn't a chance he's given me, he hasn't given me anything," Groves told Buncey's Boxing Podcast. "I was made mandatory for this fight, again which had nothing to do with him.

"This fight has ended up being a huge fight and a pay-per-view event because he's fighting me, not because Carl Froch is a pay-per view-fighter in his own right. If he had boxed Thomas Oosthuizen, this wouldn't be on pay-per-view.

"If he had boxed someone else in the top ten who no one had really heard of, it wouldn't be pay-per-view. He's not that much of a star as he believes that, regardless of who he fights, he'd sell out arenas and he'll be on pay-per-view.

"He's only a big fighter when he's in big fights. And fighting me, in my opinion, is an interesting fight for the fans. It's a fans fight, it's a fight that's going to capture the public's imagination and we've seen that already. It's going to be big and obviously Carl Froch is the established champion in this feud but I think I bring a lot to the table too."

The two have already endured a particularly fraught relationship; Groves angered his opposite's camp after deciding to spar with Mikkel Kessler ahead of the Dane's rematch with Froch.

However, unbeaten Groves stated Froch has always struggled with pre-fight trash talk - somewhere he believes he already has an edge on his compatriot.

"He's [been] a terrible trash talker throughout his whole career," Groves said. "We've seen it at all levels and particularly it was the false trash talk, which isn't natural and isn't nice to hear, when he's sat there and he's trying to sell a fight with Andre Ward.

"This time around I haven't said I'm going to do this and do that, I've just sat there and gone 'I'm going to beat you this way and I'm going to beat you that way'. It's not the general. I'm not trying to sell a fight - I'm trying to knock Carl Froch off his stride, which so far is very visible and evident."

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