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Groves can unify world titles - Sauerland

Kalle Sauerland admits selling George Groves in the UK after his double defeat to Carl Froch was a difficult ask © Getty Images

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Kalle Sauerland, who promotes his first show in England on Saturday, tells Nick Parkinson how he hopes George Groves comes through his European super-middleweight title fight with Frenchman Christopher Rebrasse to challenge for the WBC world super-middleweight in the UK by early 2015.

People have said this serves perfectly as a tune-up fight for George Groves, but anyone who has won a European title is a serious fighter: this not a tune-up fight.

Tackling the UK boxing scene

Kalle Sauerland, right, talks with Frank Warren © PA Photos

• "My whole family live in London but I live in Hamburg. I come over regularly and I go to watch Tottenham a lot. I grew up eight miles from Wembley Arena so this is like a home show for me really.
• We've co-promoted many shows here before but this will be our first show that we have solely promoted and the first show we have done with a British license.
• We work all over Europe. Last weekend we were in Denmark, this weekend we are in London and the weekend after we are in Germany for Arthur Abraham against Paul Smith. As well as Groves, we promote David Price in the UK so we would be looking to do four or five shows a year there.
• But we are not looking at signing any more UK boxers. Eddie Hearn, Frank Warren and Mick Hennessy do very well over in the UK and it wasn't about breaking into the UK market by signing the likes of George or David - we are waiting to see how David reacts in his training after having hand surgery.
• Signing George was more about liking George Groves, it's about what sells and George fights in a division we have a tradition of doing well in having worked with the likes of Sven Ottke and Mikkel Kessler in the past."

George isn't taking Christopher Rebrasse lightly and he wants to make a statement. You have to sell yourself in boxing but I would be happy if George just gets a win on points in this one. George has to make a living and this is a big fight for him, bigger than both the ones he had against Carl Froch because if he lost one of those he could always come back. If George loses in this one we really have some work to do and it would make all the work he put in against Carl Froch look as if it had been spun.

We only received the letter earlier this week confirming George's fight against Rebrasse will be a final eliminator for the WBC world super-middleweight title, as well as for the European title. The WBC champion Anthony Dirrell is allowed to take a fight in between facing the winner of Rebrasse-Groves and it is supposed to take place by November, but I can't believe that will happen so we are looking at fighting for the world title early next year. If Dirrell doesn't find an interim fight, we could maybe see George fighting for the WBC world title in December.

In a recent interview, Dirrell said he wouldn't do the Groves fight and said "who has he fought?" Well who has Dirrell fought? George's last two fights were against Carl Froch for the world title. I would make the Dirrell camp an offer to fight in the UK and if we don't find each other we will go to a purse bid, no problem. But first of all we mustn't distract ourselves from Saturday.

I've known George since his seventh professional fight when he boxed on the undercard of David Haye's fight against Nikolai Valuev. I've seen him improve over the years, he's rarely in a dull fight and he gets the business. People can identify with him. He takes boxing beyond the normal demographic and appeals to a wider audience in the UK.

The outcome of the Arthur Abraham-Paul Smith fight [for the WBO version of the world title on September 27] is definitely relevant and of interest to George. We want to unify the world super-middleweight belts next year and if George beats Rebrasse and then also beats Anthony Dirrell for the WBC title, then we certainly have a unification fight on our hands. Even if Paul Smith wins we have promotional options on him.

We had 1,400 tickets left on Monday for the show at Wembley Arena and we're hoping it will sell out come Saturday. We know it's not the easiest sell after the Carl Froch defeat but it's not about doing it for the money. It's about getting George back to winning ways and taking a massive step towards fighting for a world title again.

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