George Groves retained his WBA Super Middleweight title with a hard fought 12-round unanimous decision over Chris Eubank, Jr. in an entertaining bout and thus Groves advances to the final of the World Boxing Super Series.
The bout took place at the Manchester Arena in Manchester, England.
In round three, Eubank was cut over the right eye. The pace picked up as the fight went on with both guys throwing and mostly missing wild shots. Groves deep pedigree seemed to be the difference as when the fight was fought at distance, it was Groves jab that was the difference in the fight. Each guy landed several power shots, and the final round was extremely entertaining as both guys stood toe to toe which was much to the delight of the packed house at The Manchester Arena.
Groves won by scores of 117-112, 116-112 and 115-113 and he is now 28-3. Eubank is 26-2.
“The better man won on the night,” said Groves. “Credit to Junior for getting through 12 rounds, I didn’t think he would. Chris didn’t lie when he said he was going to grit it out. That was a terrific fight for the fans.”
“I couldn’t see out of my right eye for most of the fight but a cut’s a cut and you have to deal with it,” said Eubank Jr.
“George has got the heart of a true champion and did what he had to do. I thought I did enough in the later rounds to win it. But hopefully, we’ll get the rematch on.”
“My shoulder feels pretty sore but I wasn’t going to let anything beat me tonight.”
Ryan Walsh and Isaac Lowe battled to a 12-round split draw in a featherweight contest.
Walsh took a card 116-114, Lowe won a card 115-114 and a 3rd card read 115-115.
Walsh is 22-2-2. Lowe is now 14-0-3.
Tommy Langford won a 12-round unanimous decision over Jack Arnfield in a middleweight bout.
Langford, 159.2 lbs of Birmingham, UK won by scores of 116-111, 116-113 and 117-111 to raise his record to 20-1. Arnfield, 159.2 lbs of Blackpool, UK is 25-3.
Zach Parker stopped Adasat Rodriguez in round two of their scheduled ten-round super middleweight bout.
Parker dropped Rodriguez in round two from a hard left hook. With just seconds remaining in the round, Parker landed a series of crunching rights that sent Rodriguez down again, and the fight was stopped at 2:59.
Parker, 168 lbs of Woodvail, UK is 15-0 with 11 knockouts. Rodriguez, 168 lbs of Santa Cruz, Spain is 16-7-2.
Luther Clay won a decision over Danny Craven in a six-round middleweight bout.
Clay, 147.7 lbs of Southhampton, UK won by a referee score of 58-57, and is now 7-1. Craven, 154.3 lbs of Warrington, UK is 3-2.
